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;t':M 



i'^'i;i!(-' ■l'^i< 







THE STORY OF THE NATIONS 



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CHAPELLE DU CHATEAU DE VINCENNES. 



jlhe moi^ of tht |Jaii(ms 



THE STORY 



Medieval France 



FROM THE REIGN OF HUGUES CAPET 
TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY • 



KY 



GUSTAVE MASSON, B.A. 

UNIV. GALLIC, OFFICIER d'aCAD^MIE, MEMBER OF THE SOCI^T^ DE l'hISTOIRK 
DE FRANCE, ASSISTANT MASTER AND LIBRARIAN OF HARROW SCHOOL 



NOV 28 \m 



NEW YORK 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN 

isas 



y 



Copyright 
By G. p. Putnam's Sons 

1888 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 

By T. Fisher Unwin 



Press of 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York 



MY FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE, 

M. GUSTAVE RUAULT, 

THE FOLLOWING VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED, 

GUSTAVE MASSON. 




PREFACE. 



'' The story of a nation," we conceive, is read, 
not only in its political annals, in the records of the 
battle-field, and the details of treaties of peace ; but 
in its social life, in the development of commerce, 
industry, literature, and the fine arts. Accordingly, 
whilst attempting throughout the following pages to 
give the history of Mediaeval France, we have allowed 
a large share to what may be called the intellectual 
side of the subject, more especially to the formation 
and progress of national literature. Without pre- 
tending to exhaust the topic, we have illustrated it by 
extracts from several authors, accompanied, whenever 
necessary, by a translation in English. The reader 
will thus be able to follow at the same time the 
development of the language ; and the glossary at 
the end of the volume will help him to understand 
the archaisms used in the original passages quoted in 
the text. 

We have consulted the best sources for the prepa- 
ration of this work, especially the histories of Messrs. 
Michelet, Duruy, Bordier and Charton, Demolins, and 



X 



PREFACE. 



Cheruel (" Dictionnaire des institutions, moeurs et 
coutumes de la France "), and we trust that it may 
nut be found unworthy of the series of which it forms 

a part. 

GUSTAVE MASSON. 

Harrow-on-the-Hill, 
Marc/i, 1888. 




CONTENTS. 



Chronological Table 



PAGE 

xxii 



Sources to Consult on the History of 
France from Hugues Capet to Louis XII. 



XXXI 



Chronological List of all the Chancellors 
OF France from the Beginning of the 
Capetian Dynasty to the Reign of 
Louis XII. 



XXXV 



Genealogy of the Capetian Kings of France 

to the Reign of Louis XII, . • . xxxviii 



Genealogy of the Capetian Kings of France 



xl 



A Tabular View of the States- General 
FROM their Commencement to the Reign 
OF Louis XII. inclusive . , . . 



xlii 



xii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
I- 

The First Four Capetian Kings (987-1108). 1-21 

The society of the sixth century, 3 — Feudal system, 5 — Feu- 
dal fortresses, 7 — Feudal dues, 9— Vassals and serfs, II — 
Warlike prelates, 13 — The Church, 15 — Attitude of the serfs, 
17 — Robert of Normandy; Foulques Nerra, 19 — Philip I., 21. 

II- 

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land — The Cru- 
sades — Chivalry ..... 22-46 

Council of Clermont, 23- The Crusaders in Asia, 27 — " Assi 
ses de Jerusalem," 29— Results of the Crusades, 31 — Chivalry, 
^;^ — Heraldry, 35— Early French literature, 38— Subjects 
treated by poets, 39 — Chanson de Gestes, 40 — Sirventes, 41 
— ^ Bertram de Born, 42 — Robeit Wace, 43 — "Roman de 
Rou, ' 44 — Richard the Pilgrim, 45— Philip I., 46. 

ITT. 

LouLS VI. — Louis VI I. — The Communal 

Movement — Scholasticism (1108-1180) . 47-68 

The communal movement, 49 — Commune de Beauvais, 51 — 
France and England, 55 — France and the Papacy, 57 — 
Second Crusade, 59 — Suger, 61 — Guild of Paris merchants, 
63 — University of Paris, 65— Louis VI., 66 — Abelard, 67. 

IV. 

Philip Augustus — The Crusades — The Albi- 

genses— Louis VIIL (1180-1226) . 69-89 

Richard Coeur de Lion, 71 — Battle of Bouvines, 73^75 — Foul- 
ques of Neuilly, 77— Conquest of Constantinople, 81 — Philip 
Augustus, 82 — Crusade against the Albigenses, 83 — Heretics 
and infidels, 85 — France under interdict, 87. 



CONTENTS. xiii 



V. 



Saint Louis, to his Return from his First 

Crusade (1226-1254) .... 90-ioJ 

Louis IX., 91 — Joinville, 93 — The English in France, 95 
— Louis IX. and the Crusade, 97 — ^Joinville and Villehar- 
douin, 99 — Battle of Mansurah, 100 — The plague, loi — The 
Queen of France, 102 — The French leave Egypt, 104 — Death 
of Blanche of Castile, 105 — The Pastoureaux, 106 — The 
Master of Hungary, 107. 



vr. 

Saint Louis; End of the Reign — Litera- 
ture, Arts, and Sciences during the 
Thirteenth Century (1254-1270) . . 109-132 

Law reforms, no, in— St. Louis as a judge, 113 — Roads; 
Coinage, 114 — Trade and industry, 115, 116 — Administration 
and government, 117 — Foundations created by Saint Louis, 
118 — Saint Louis starts for another crusade, ng — Literature, 
120—" Chansons de Geste," 121 — "Roman de la Rose," 122 
— Ratebeaf ; Marie de France, 123 — The drama, 124 — Thi- 
baut de Champagne, 125 — Pulpit eloquence, 126 — Church 
architecture, 127 — The fine arts, 130- Music, 131 — Industrial 
arts, 132. 



VII. 

Philip IIL— Philip IV. (1270-1314) . . 133-152 

Philip III. ; Charles d'Anjou, 134 — The Sicilian Vespers, 135 
— Philip III. makes war with Spain, 136 — Pierre de la Brosse, 
137 — Mary of Brabant, 138 — Philip IV., 139 — Low state of 
the exchequer, 140 — Philip IV. and the English, 141 — Philip 
IV. and the Flemings, 142— Battle of Courtrai, 143 — Philip 
IV. and the Church, 144 — Arrest of Bernard Saisset, 145- Bull 
" Ausculta, Fili," 146 — Guillaume de Nogaret, 147 — Popes 
Boniface VIII. and Benedict XI , 148— The Knights-Temp- 



XIV CONTENTS. 



lar, 149 — " Roman de Fauvel," 150 — States-General of 1302, 
151 — Fifty-four knights burnt to death, 152. 



VIII. 

Philip the Fair — Louis X. — Philip V. — ■ 

Charles IV. — Philip VI. (1314-1328) . 153-170 

The Paris Parliament, 154 — ^Jean Buridan, 155 — Louis X., le 
Hutin, 156 — Enguerrand de Marigny, 157 — The Salic law, 
158 — Reform of the aristocracy, 159 — ^Jews and Lepers, 160 — 
Charles le Bel, 161 — Severity of the Paris Parliament, 162 — 
The Hundred Years' War, 163 — Rebellion in Planders, 164 — 
Battle of Cassel, 165 — Defeat of the Flemings, 166 — Froissart, 
167-9 — Sir John Bourchier on history, 170. 



IX. 

Philip VI. (concluded) — The Hundred 

Years' War (1328-1350) . . 171-187 

The Brewer Arteveldt, 172 — The Duchy of Brittany, 173 — 
Charles of Blois, 174 — Siege of Hennebon, 175 — 'I'ruce of 
1346, 176 — Death of Clisson, 177 — The English in France, 178 
— Battle of Cressy, 179 — The Genoese archers, 180 — Death of 
the King of Bohemia, 181 — Siege of Calais, 182 — Eustachede 
Saint Pierre, 183 — Calais an English colony, 184 — The black 
death, 185 — Philip's home administration, 186 — Territorial 
acquisitions, 187. 



John II. — The Hundred Years' War (con- 
tinued) — El ienne Marcel — The Jac- 
querie (1350-1364) ..... 188-209 

Charles le Mauvais, 189 — The States-General, 190 — Financial 
measures, 191 — Battle of Poitiers, 192 — Errors nnd bravery of 
the king, 193 — King John surrenders, 194 — The French king 



CONTENTiS. XV 



in England, 196 — Travels to Windsor, 197 — Marcel and 
Lecoq, 198 — "La grande ordonnance," 199 — Revolution in 
Paris, 200^Reaction in the provinces, 201 — Jacques Bon- 
homme, 202 — Marcel and Charles le Mauvais, 203 — Murder 
of Etienne Marcel, 204 — State of France, 205 — Le Grand 
Ferre, 206 — The English at Longueil, 207 — Peace of Bretigny, 
208 — Death of the king, 209, 



XL 

Charles V. the Wise, and First Part of 

THE Reign of Charles VI. (1364-1392) . 210-233 

Authorities for the reign of Charles V. , 2 1 1 — Battles of Cocherel 
and Auray, 213 — The " grandes compagnies," 215 — English 
and French, 217 — Duguesclin, 218 — Budget of Charles V., 
220— Political writings, 221 — The Duke d'Anjou, 222 — 
Council of regency, 223 — Charles VLin Paris, 224 — The Duke 
d Anjou, 225^The Maillotins, 226 — General rising of the peo- 
ple, 227 — Battle of Roosebeke, 228 — The Maillotins, 229 — 
The Marmousets, 230 — Attempt upon Clisson, 232 — Charles 
VL struck with madness, 233. 



XIL 

Second Part of the Reign of Charles VI. 

(1392-1422) 234-253 

Isabelle of Bavaria, 235— Murder of the Duke d'Orleans, 236 
—Death of Valentine Visconti, 237 — Eustache Deschamps, 
238 — Alain Chartier ; Christine de Pisan, 239— Burgundians 
and Armagnacs, 240 — Battle of Azincourt, 242 — Severe losses 
of the French, 243— Fresh massacres in Paris, 244 — Capitula- 
tion of Rouen, 245— The Duke of Burgundy murdered, 246— 
Treaty of Troyes, 247— The Dauphin retires behind the Loire, 
248— Death of Henry V. and Charles VL, 249— Affairs of the 
Church, 250— Pierre d'Ailly, 251— " Apparition de Maistre 
Jehan de Meung," 252— Nicolas de Clemangis, 253. 



Xvi CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XIII. 

Charles VIL— End of the Hundred Years' 

War (1422-1461) ..... 254-280 

Battles of Cravant and of Verneuil, 255 — Strengthening the 
power of Charles VIL, 256 — Siege of Montargis, 257 — Siege of 
Orleans, 258 — "Battle of the Herrings," 260 — ^Joan of Arc, 
- 262-5 — Battle of Patay, 266 — Capture of Joan of Arc, 267 — 
Coronation of Henry VI., 268 — Conference at Arras, 269 — 
Richemont enters Paris, 270 — Character of Charles VII., 271 
— End of the war, 272 — The " Pragiierie," 273 — "Ordon- 
nance d'Orleans,' 274 — The "Francs-archers," 275 — Financial 
reforms, 277— Deaih of Charles VIL, 278 — Jacques Coeur, 
279. 

XIV. 

Louis XI. (1461-1483) . . . . . 281-3C3 

Louis XL and feudalism, 2S4— Character of Louis XL, 285 — 
Coronation of Louis XL, 286 — League of the common weal, 
287 — Battle of Montlhery, 288 -France and Burgundy, 290 — 
Louis XL at Peronne, 291 — Cardinal Balue, 292 — Charles the 
" Bold invades Picardy, 293 — Death of the Duke de Guienne, 
294 — Jeanne Hachette, 295 — The baronial houses give 
way, 298 — Breaking up of the feudal system, 299 — Battle of 
Guinegate, 300— Death of Louis XL, 301 — Non-poHtical re- 
forms, 302 — Progr-iss uf France under Louis XL, 303. 

XV. 
Charles VIII. (1483-1498) — Louis XIL 

(1498--1515) • • • • • • 304-325 

" La Grande Dame," 305— The Duke d'Orleans, 306— Rebel- 
lion against Anne de Beaujeu, 307— Battle of Saint Aubin du 
Cormier, 308 — Charles VIIL, 309 — Situation of Italy, 310 — 
Charles VIII. invades Italy, 31 [ — Battle of Fornovo, 312 — 
Death of Charles VIIL, 314 — Character of Louis XIL, 315 — 
Lodovico il Moro, 316 — Battle of Garigliano, 317 — League 
against France, 319 — Battle of Rarenna, 320 — Death of Louis 
XIL, 322 — Administration, 323 — "The Father of the Peo- 
ple," 324— Georges Cardinal d'Amboise, 325. 



CONTENTS, xvii 

PAGE 
XVI. 

Intellectual Life of the Fifteenth Cen- 
tury — Literature, The Drama, Industry 
— Concluding Remarks .... 326-342 

Poetry; Rutebeuf, Villon, 327 — Historians; Monstrelet, 328 
— Chastellain ; Basin, 329 — Commines, 330 — Louis XI. and 
Commines, 331 — Tales; " Les cent nouvelles nouvelles," 
332 — The drama,, 333 — The Basoche ; " Enfants sans souci," 
334 — ^Pierre Gringore, 335 — Art of printing, 336 — Architec- 
ture, 337 — Painting, 338 — Playing cards, 339 — Industry and 
commerce, 340 — The Renaissance, 341 — The Reformation, 
342. 

Glossary of Medieval Words . . . 343 

Index . . 347 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

CHAPELLE DU CHATEAU DE VINCENNES . Frontispiece 

CHATEAU OF MONTLHERY 8 

A KNIGHT OF MEDIAEVAL FRANCE . . . . lO 

GODFREY OF BOULOGNE IN THE MOVING TOWER . 25 

KING OF THE TENTH CENTURY 32 

KNIGHT AND ARMS 34 

TOURNAMENT 37 

SEAL OF LOUIS VI. . 47 

CATHEDRAL OF NOYON 50 

SEAL OF TOULOUSE COMMUNE (OBVERSE AND REVERSE) 53 

FIGURE OF SUGER IN CHURCH WINDOW . . . 60 

SEAL OF ST. BERNARD 78 

THE VOWING OF A CHURCH 79 

SEAL OF SIMON DE MONTFORT 84 

PARIS UNDER PHILIPPE AUGUSTE 87 

WALLS OF CARCASSONNE -89 



XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

SAINT LOUIS 92 

SAINT LOUIS STARTS FOR THE CRUSADE . . . 98 

SAINT LOUIS IN PRISON I03 

SAINT LOUIS RENDERS JUSTICE 112 

SEAL OF LOUIS IX II7 

TROUBADOURS 122 

SAINT VVULFRAN, A ABBEVILLE . . . . . I28 

NOTRE DAME OF PARIS .129 

FROISSART 169 

FRONT ENTRANCE OF NOTRE DAME, AT POITIERS . . I95 

CORONATION OF CHARLES V 212 

STATUE OF DUGUESCLIN 214 

TOMB OF DUGUESCLIN 2l6 

VIEW OF THE BASTILE . . c . . . . 219 

CHARLES VI. . . 231 

HEAD-DRESS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ^ . . 24I 

BATTLE OF AZIN COURT . . . . . . . 243 

CAPTURE OF TROYES . . . . . . . .246 

THE OLD LOUVRE . . . . . . . . 248 

SIEGE OF ORLEANS 259 

STATUE OF JOAN OF ARC . . . . . .261 

MEDAL OF JOAN OF ARC . . . . . . 265 

STATUE OF JOAN OF ARC . . . . . . 268 

PORTRAIT OF JACQUES CCEUR 27.6 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXI 

PACE 

KING RENi 282 

JEANNE DE LAVAL 283 

PHILIP THE GOOD AND CHARLES THE BOLD . . 289 

GATE OF THE PALACE, NANCY 297 

CATHEDRAL OF REIMS 299 

BATTLE OF FORNOVO . . . . . . • 313 

CHEVALIER BAYARD 318 

MOUNT ST. MICHAEL 32 1 

PHILIP DE COMMINES . . . . . . . 330 




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SOURCES TO CONSULT ON THE HISTORY OF 
FRANCE FROM HUGUES CAPET 

TO LOUIS xn. 

THE CAPETIANS, 

I Glaber (Raoul), d. about 1046. His chronicle extends from 900 

to 1044. 
I Richer, loth century. " Richeri Historiarum,'' IV. hbri, 888—995. 

Invaluable for the history of that time. 
I Helgaud, d. 1048? "Epitome vitse Roberti regis," 997 — 1031. 
Written in a detestable style, and too much as a panegyric ; 
but interesting. 
I Adalberon, Bishop of Laon, d. 1030? 103 t ? Satirica' poem in- 
scribed to the king. 
I Eudes, monk of the Abbey of St. Maur des Fosses. Life of Bou- 
chard (Burckhardt), Count of Melun and Corbeil, 950 — 1058. 
1 Hugues de Sainte Marie, monk of Fleury (St. Benoit-sur-Loire), 

nth century. " Chronicon Floriacense," — 1108. 
I Hugues de Poitiers, 12th century. " Histoire du Monastere de 

Vezelai," Books ii. — iv., 1140— 1167. Interesting details. 
I Guibert de Nogent, 1053— 1 124. " Gesta Dei per Francos " (His- 
tory of the First Crusade) ; " de vita sua." One of the best of 
mediceval chronicles. 
1 Guillaume de St. Thierry. ) 

I Arnaud de Bonneval. ^'^^ ^^ St. Bernard, abbot of Clair- 

1 Geoffroide Clairvaux. ' ^^^^' logi-nSS- 

I Rigord, ^. 1207? " Life of Philip Augustus," T165— 1208. For the 
history of the first thirty years of the reign this work is incom- 
parably the best. 
I Guillaume le Breton (Gz^/zV/^/z?/^ Brifo), 1150? — 1226. Continua- 
tion of the previous work, 1208 —1223, " Philippidos," hbri 
xii., an historical poem of great interest. 
I Nicolas de Bray, 1160 ? — 1230 ? " Gesta Ludovici VIII." Historical 
poem. 



XXXU SOURCES FOR HISTORY OF FRANCE. 

1,2 Guillaume de Nangis. "Chronicon," from the creation of the 

world to 1301, continued by other monks of Saint Denis to 1368. 
I Pierre de Vaulx-Cernay, 13th century. Chronicle of the war 

against the Albigensas. 
I Guillaume de Puy Laurens, 1210? — 1295. Chronicle of the war 

against the Albigenses. 
1 Simon de Montfort. Under that name a chronicle exists called 

'' Des gestes glorieux des Francais, ' 1202 — 131 1. 
1 Guillaume de Tyr, 1130? — 1190? "Historic des Croisades," 

1095 — 1 184. Most interesting. 
1,2 Emoul and Bernard le tresorier. Chronicle, 1201 — 1231. 
I Albert (or Alberic) d'Aix, 12th century. ''Chronicon Hieroso- 

lymitanum," 1095 — 1120. 
I Raimond dAgiles. Interesting account of the First Crusade, 1096 

— 1 100. 
I Jacques de Vitry, d. 1240. " Historia Orientalis, Historia Occi- 

dentahs.'' 
I Raoul de Caen, 12th century. " Gesta Tancredi," — 1105. (First 

Crusade.) 
I Robert le Moine, 1055— 1122. "Historia Hierosolymitana." 

(First Crusade.) 
I Foulcher de Chartres. " History of the Crusades," 1095 — 1127. 
I Odon de Dueil, d. 1162. Wrote a history of the expedition of 

Louis VII. in Palestine, 1146 — 1148. 
1,2 Orderic Vital, 1075 — 1142. His ecclesiastical history abounds in 

interesting details on the state of society in the nth and 12th 

centuries. 
I Guillaume de Jumieges, nth century. " Historia Norman- 

norum," 850—1137. 
I Guillaume de Poitiers, nth century. "Gesta Gulielmei Ducis " 

(VViUiam the Conqueror), — 1070. 
3 Guillaume Anelier. History of the war in Navarre, 1276, 77. 
Pud- 

seta- I " Grandes Chroniques de France," 376 — 1381. 
rately. ) 
2,4,5,6 Geoflroi de Villehardouin, 1155?— 1213. " La Conqueste de Con- 
stantinoble." The earliest chronicle written in French, 1198 — 
1207. 
4,6 Henry de Valenciennes. Continues Villehardouin's chronicle. 
3 Cuvelier, 14th century. A metrical history of Duguesclin. 
6 " Chronique Metrique de Saint Alagloire, 1223 — 1292. 
6 " Chronique Metrique d'Adam de la Halle,'' 1282? 
6 Guillaume Guiard, 13th century. " La Branche des royaux 

Lignages.'" A rhymed chronicle, 1165 — 1306. 
6 Godefroi de Paris. " Chronique Metrique de Philippe le Bel," 
1300 — 1316. 



FROM HUGUES CAPET TO LOUIS XII. xxxni 

2,4.5 Le Sire de Joinville, 1224 — 1319- " Vie de Saint Louis. " Charming 
by its style, its grace, and its simplicity. 
2,6 Jean Froissart, 1337 — 1410. Chronique, 1326 — 1400. The 
chronicler J>ar excellence. 

The Valois 

2,4,5 Christine de Pisan, 1363? — 143 1. " Le Livre des faits et bonnes 
moeurs du sage roy Charles (V.)." Authentic and interesting, 
but too pompous in style, 1336 — 1380. 

2 " La Chronique du bon Due Louis de Bourbon," 1360 — 1410. 

4.5 " Le livre des faicts dubon Messire Jean le Maingre, dit Mareschal 

de Boucicaut," 1368 — 1421. 

3 " Chronique du Religieux de Saint Denis," 1380 — 1422. 

4 Jean Juvenal des Ursins, 1388 — 1473. " Histoire de Charles VI., 

roi de France," 1380— 1422. 

2.6 Enguerrand de Alonstrelet, 1390? — 1453. Chronique, 1400 — 144}.. 

Tedious when compared to Froissart, but valuable for its 
accuracy and completeness. 
2,6 Lefevre de Saint Remy, 1394— 146S. Memoires, 1407 — 1435. 

2.4.5 Pierre de Fenins. Memoires, 1408 — 1425. 

4 "Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous le regne de Charles VL" 

1408 — 1422. 
7 Guillaume Cousinot. " Chronique de la Pucelle,'' 1422 — 1429. 
7 Pierre Cochon, — 1443. " Chronique Xormande," 11 18 — 1430. 
7 Jean Chartier, — 1462. " Chronique de Charles VJL", 1422 — 

1461. 
4,5 Th. Godefroi. " Histoire d'Artns IIL, Due de Bretaigne, Comte 

de Richemont, et connetable de France," 1413 — 1457- 

4.5 Th. Godefroi. " Memoires relatifs a Florent, Sire d'llliers.'' 

4.6 "Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous le regne de Charles \T I," 

1422 -1449. 
4,5 Olivier de la Marche, 1426 — 1502. Memoires, ler et 2nd livres, 
1435— 1488. 

4.5 Olivier de la Marche. " S'ensuyt I'etat de la maison du Due 

Charles de Bourgogne, dit le Hardi, 1474. 

4.5.6 Jacques du Clercq, 1420 — , seigneur de Beauvoir en Ternois. 

Memoires, 1448 — 1467. 

2.6 Mathieu d'Escouchy (or de Courcy). Chronique, 1444 — 1461. 

Continuator of Alonstrelet. 
2,4,5 Philippe de Commines, 1445- 1509. Memoires, 1464 — 1498. The 
first French author who has written history with the depth and 
sagacity of a man accustomed to political life. 
4,5 " Chronique Scandaleuse," 1460 — 1483. On the life of Louis XI. 
Does not deserve the title under which it is known. 
2 Thomas Basin, 1412 — 1491. "Histoire de Charles VH., et de 
Louis XL" Written in Latin ; most valuable. 



XXxiv SOURCES FOR HISTORY OF FRANCE. 

3 Jean Masselin, — 1500. "Journal des etats generaux de 1484." 
4,5 Guillaume de Villeneuve. Memoires, 1494— 1497. Very curious 

memoirs. 
4,5 Jean Boucher, 1476— 1550? " Panegyrique du Chevalier sans 

reproche," 1460— 1525. 

2.4 " Le Loyal Serviteur." Tres joyeuse, plaisante, et recreative 

histoire du bon chevalier sans paour et sans reproche, 1476 — 

1520. A masterpiece. 
6 George Chastellain, 1403— 1475. " Chronique du bon chevalier 

Jacques de Lalaing," 1430 — 1453- 
6 George Chastellain. "Declaration de tons les hautz faitz et 

glorieuses adventures du due Philippe de Bourgogne," 1464 — 

1470. 
5 Jean Molinet, — 1507. Chronique, 1470 — 1506. 

The Valois-Orl£;ans. 

4.5 Robert de la Marck, seigneur de Fleuranges, 1491 — 1537. "His- 

toire des choses memorables advenures du reigne de Louis XIL 
et Francois I.,'' 1499 — 1521. Interesting memoirs, but 
written too much in a./an/aro?i style. 



The foregoing list comprises the p7-incipaL chronicles and memoirs 
published in the collections edited by : — i. M. Guizot. 2. Le SocidU de 
r histoire de France. 3 The French Government (" Documents inddits"). 
4 MM. Michaud and Poujoulat. 5 MM. Petitot and Monmerqu^. 
6 M. Buchon. 7 M. Jannet ("Bibliotheque Elzevirienne "). 




CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ALL THE CHAN- 
CELLORS OF FRANCE FROM THE BEGIN- 
NING OF THE CAPETIAN DYNASTY TO 
THE REIGN OF LOUIS XII. 



HuGUEs Capet. 



Robert. 



Henry T. 



Louis the Fat. 



Louis the Young. 



Philip Augustus. 

Louis VIIL 
Louis IX, 



Adalb^ron, Archbishop of Reims — Gerbert, Archbis- 
hop of Reims — Reginald, Bishop of Paris — Rotger, 
Bishop of Beauvais, 

Abbo, Bishop — Francon, Bishop of Paris — Arnulphus, 
Archbishop of Reims — Baldwin —Fulbert of Char- 
tres.* 

Gervais, Archbishop of Reims (1059, 1065) — Baldwin 
(1061 — 1067) — Peter, Abbot of Saint Germain 
(1067 — 71) — Guillaume (1073)— God frid (^075^92) 
— Roger of Beauvais (1070, 1080, 1105) — Ursion 
of Senlis (1090) — Hubert (1091, 92) — Hambaud 
(1095) — Arnulphus (1097) — Gislebert (1095, 1105) 
— Etienne (1106, 1108). 

Etienne (the same as above, iioB — 11 16 — Etienne de 
Garlande (1116, 1125, 1133) — Fulchrade (11 19)— 
Simon (1125, 1133) — Hugues (1129) — Algrin (1134, 

37)- 

Algrin (the same as above, 11 50)— Noel, Abbot of 
Rebais (1139, 40) — Cadurc (1140 — 1147) — Lideric 
(1142) — Barthelemy (1147) — Baudouin (1147) — 
Simon (1150, 1153) — Hugues de Champfueri, Bis- 
hop of Soissons (1150, 51, 69, 72) — Roger (1154) — 
Hugues de Puiseaux (1178, 79). 

Hugues de Puiseaux (as above, to ii'S) — Hugues de 
Bethisy (1185, 86). 

Guerin (1186 — 1226). 

Guerin (abdicates in 1227, then a vacancy occurs — 
Philip d'Antogny — Jean Allegrin (1240? vacancy 
in 1248) — Nicolas de Canis (1249)— Gilles, Archbis- 
hop of Tyre (i258)^eanle Court d'Aubergenville, 



XXXvi LIHT OF CHANCELLORS OF FRANCE. 



Philip III. 



Philip IV. 



Louis le Hutin. 
Philip V. 

Charles IV. 
Philip VI. 



John II. 

Charlp:s V. 
Charles VI. 



Charles VII. 



Bishop of Evreux (1258, 1260, vacancy in 1259) — 
Simon de Brie (^Pope under the name of Martin IV. 
1261) — Philippe de Caturc (1269) — Mathieu de Ven- 
tiome, Abbot of Saint Denis — Simon de Clermont. 

Pierre Barbet, Archbishop of Reims (1270, vacancy in 
1271, 73, 74, 79) — Henry de Vezelay {1279) — Pierre 
de Challon (1281—83). 

Jean de Vassaigne (1292, died in 1300) — Etienne de 
Sousy (1292, 1302, 1304) — Guillaume de Crespy 
(1293, 96) — Pierre Flotte (1300—1302) — Pierre de 
Belle- Perche, Bishop of Auxerre (1306, 1307) — 
Pierre de Gres — Guillaume de Nogaret (1307) — 
Gilles Aycelin, Archbishop of Narbonne (1309 — 
1313) — Pierre de Latilly (1313 — 14). 

Etienne de Mornai (1314— 16). 

Pierre d'Arablai (1316, 17) — Pierre de Chappes (1321) 
— Jean de Cherchemont (1320). 

Pierre Rodier (1320 — 23) — Jean de Cherchemont 
(1323—28). 

Mathieu Ferrand (1328)— Jean de Marigny, Arch- 
bishop of Rouen (1329) — Guillaume de Sainte 
Maure (1329 — 34) — Pierre Rogert (since Clement 
VI, , 1334)— Guy Baudet, Bishop of Langres (1334 
—38)— Etienne de Vissac (1338)- Guillaume Flotte 
(1339—47) — Firmin Coquerel, Bishop of Noyon 
(1347)— Pierre de la For^t, Cardinal (1349—57). 

Pierre de la Foret (1359)- Fouquet Bardoul— Gilles 
Aycelin de Montagu (1357, 1360) — Jean de Dor- 
mans, Bishop of Beauvais (1361). 

Jean de Dormans (till 1317)— Guillaume de Dormans 
(1371)— Pierre d'Orgemont (1380). 

Milon de Dormans, Bishop of Beauvais (1383) — 
Pierre de Giac (1388)— Arnaud de Corbie (dismissed 
in 1398, reinstated 1400— 1405 ; dismissed again, 
reinstated, exercises 1409 ; abdicates in 1412) — 
Hier de Martreuil (?)— Nicolas du Bois, Bishop of 
Bayeux (1398— 1400)— Jean de Montagu, Arch- 
bishop of Sens (1405 -1409)- Henri de Laistre 
(1413, 1418—20)— Henri le Lorgne de Marie (1413 
— 1418)— Jean le Clerc (1420—25). 

Louis de Luxembourg (1424— 1435, named by Henrv 
VI. as well as the «^.r/)— Thomas Hoo (1436—39) — 
Robert Ig Ma9on {named by the Datiphin, 1418, 
1419-21)— Martin Gouges de Charpaigne, Bishop 
of Clermont (1421—38)— Renaud de Chartres, 
Archbishop of Reims (March 28, August 6, 1424, 



LIST OF CHANCELLORS OF FRANCE. XXXVU 

1428 — 45) — Guillaurae Juvenal des Ursins (1445 — 

1461). 
Louis XI. Pierre de Morvillier (1461 — 1465) — Guillaume Juvenal 

de Ursins (1472) — Pierre d'Oriole (1483). 
Charles VIII. Guillaume de Rochefort (1492)— Adam Fumee (1494) 

— Robert Bri^onnet, Archbishop of Reims (1495 — 

97)— Gui de Rochefort. 
Louis XII. Gui de Rochefort (as above till 1507)— Jean de Gannay 

(1512) — Etienne Poncher (1515). 



Judicial functions — belonged 
to the Parliament proper, 
divided into three Courts 



THE PARLIAMENT. 

The Supreme Court of Law in France held its sittings, first at intervals, 
afterwards (reign of Charles V.) permanently ; was re-organized by Phihpthe 
Fair (edict of 1302), and subdivided according to the nature oi the duties it 
had to discharge. 

I. Political functions — belonged to the Council of State {Conseil d'etat, 
Grand Conseil, Conseil Etroit). 

ja. Chambre des requites, tried cases 
brought directly before the Par- 
liament. 
b. Chambre des enquetes, tried cases 
about which appeal had been 
made to Parliament. 
Grand' Chatnbre or Chambre des 
plaidoiries, decided cases ex- 
amined in the firsi instance by 
the Chambre des enquetes. 
3. Financial functions — belonged to the Chambre des comptes. 

Number of persons composing the Parliament under the reigns of 
Charles VII., Louis XL, Charles VIII., and Louis XII. : — 

1. Twelve Peers of France. 

2. Eight Masters {Maih-es des requetes). 

3. Eighty Councillors, both laymen and ecclesiastics. 



PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENTS. 



Toulouse created in 1302 


Dijon created in 1477 


Grenoble ,, ,, 1453 


Rouen ,, ,, 1499 


Bordeaux ,, ,, 1462 


Aix „ ,, 1501 



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xiii 



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TABLE OF THE STATES-GENERAL, 



xliii 



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MEDIEVAL FRANCE. 



I. 

THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIAN KINGS. 
987-1108.) 

The story of ancient France can scarcely be said 
to begin before Hugues Capet ; during the Merovingian 
dynasty it is the story of the Celts, the Romans, the 
Greeks, and the Teutons ; under Charlemagne and his 
successors it is closely interwoven with that of Ger- 
many. When, in 987, the Duke of France decided 
upon assuming the title of king, the large and fertile 
country included between the Rhine, the Pyrenees, and 
the Atlantic Ocean could scarcely indeed be regarded as 
forming one political community, but the various ele- 
ments of which it consisted were gradually becoming 
welded together, and all the inhabitants of that region, 
whether north or south of the Loire, claimed the name 
of FrencJnnen. Let us take a glance at that series of 
duchies, baronies, countships, and other quasi-indepen- 
dent states of which Hugues Capet was the nominal 
king. Brittany strikes us first as the district which 



2 THE FIRST FOUR CAPET I AN KINGS, 

was the last to lose the originality of its laws, its cus- 
toms, its language, and its literature ; as far back as 
the fourth century the league or association of the 
Armorican cities, governed by independent chieftains, 
set at defiance both the Roman legions and the hordes 
of Barbarians, who from the further side of the Rhine 
overran the whole of Gaul. They maintained their 
freedom against the Northmen on the one side, and 
the Angevins on the other. After 982, however, they 
ceased to form a separate state and became part of 
France. If we travel southwards, starting from the 
banks of the Rhine, we find the provinces of Flanders, 
Vermandois, Picardy ; and, going towards the east, 
Lorraine. Champagne owes its name {Campania in 
Gregorius Turonensis) to the fertility of its soil, and 
to its general appearance ; it was originally governed 
by princes of the Vermandois family. The Counts of 
Anjouwere undoubtedly the most powerful amongst the 
vassals of Hugues Capet ; they played a conspicuous 
part in the history of the Middle Ages, and were closely 
mixed up with the political life, not only of France, 
but of England. Burgundy and Franche Comte must 
not be forgotten, and in the course of this "story " we 
shall often have the opportunity of recording the events 
which brought the rulers of these provinces into col- 
lision with the kings of France. And now we come 
to the banks of the Loire, on the southern side of which 
the large districts of Septimania, Toulouse, Gascony, 
Provence, and Guienne (corrupted from Aquitania) are 
occupied by a population which still betrays its Latin 
origin, and is decidedly the most intellectual and most 
refined part of France. There is the home of the 



THE SOCIETY OF THE SIXTH CENTURY. 3 

Trotibadours ; there flourishes the Langue d'oc, which 
has produced so many brilliant monuments of elegant 
literature. 

We have thus given a short view of the principal 
territorial elements of which the French family con- 
sists ; we shall now describe as briefly, and yet as 
completely as we can, the constitution of the family 
itself and the political structure which prevailed during 
the period known as the Middle Ages. 

Three different categories made up society in the 
Gaul of the sixth century ; namely, the Gallo-Roman, 
the Church, and the Barbarian. When Hugues Capet 
came to the throne, this threefold division still 
existed, but under different names : the lords held the 
position occupied previously by the Gallo-Romans, 
and whilst the Church retained its position, the serfs 
represented the lowest stratum of society, barbarians 
in point of fact, if not by express designation. The 
bonds which connected these three orders with each 
other may be said to have arisen from two edicts or 
enactments which consecrated a revolution of ancient 
date, and resulting from the very nature and constitu- 
tion of society. In times of political disturbances, 
when the most elementary notions of order seem for- 
gotten and cast aside, it is a matter of course that the 
weak should endeavour to secure the protection of the 
strong, and to obtain, if possible, the conditions of 
peaceful life and of undisturbed labour. Now, in 847 
an edict given at Mersen contained the following 
clause : " Every free man shall be allowed to select 
for himself a lord, either the king or one of the king's 
vassals ; and no vassal of the crown shall be obliged 



4 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIAN KINGS, 

to follow the king to war, except against foreign 
enemies." The force of this enactment will be obvious. 
We must bear in mind that at the time of his accession, 
Hugues Capet was no more than the equal of most 
of the lords between whom the territory of France was 
divided, and even inferior in power to some of them. 
Nor was this a solitary case, and as his subjects could 
thus make their obedience a matter of bargain, the 
sovereign would frequently find himself helpless in 
times of civil war, and being equally unable to enforce 
submission upon the lords, and to protect the common 
class of his subjects, these would naturally group them- 
selves around the more powerful barons. 

As the edict of Mersen affected the question of 
secui'ity, so that of Kiersy told upon the status of 
propei'ty. Under the Carlovingian dynasty property 
was of two kinds ; the holders of allodial lands {allodial 
from all, and the old Teutonic substantive od^ goods, 
property) enjoyed them absolutely and independently. 
On the other hand, benefices or fiefs (from the Anglo- 
Saxon feof, cattle, money) were granted by a lord to 
a person who, in return for that grant, and for the 
protection it insured on the part of the baron, obliged 
himself to do military service, to render pecuniary 
assistance, &c. Now it would frequently happen that 
the owner of allodial property, isolated amongst all his 
independence, found it impossible to live securely and 
comfortably in the vicinity of barons stronger or more 
powerful than himself. He would then select one of 
these barons or feudal lords, recommend himself to 
him, as the saying was, make over to him by a 
kind of feigned cession his allodial property, and 



FEUDAL SYSTEM, 5 

then receive it back again as a benefice^ together with 
all the duties, obligations, and burdens belonging to it. 
As a matter of course, beneficiary property soon formed 
the rule, except south of the Loire, and there was no 
landed property which did not depend upon another 
property, no man who was not the vassal or dependant 
of another man. The hereditary transmission of landed 
property and of all charges, offices, and positions of 
trust was sanctioned by the edict of Kiersy i^Jj). 

We thus see that every great lord or landowner, 
enjoying the same rights and privileges as the king 
himself, there existed throughout the length and 
breadth of France as many sovereigns as there were 
dukes, counts, viscounts, &c. When Hugues Capet 
came to the throne, he found a hundred and fifty 
barons owning the right of legislating, coining, ad- 
ministering justice, making war, and concluding 
treaties with their neighbours. The king, therefore, 
had no real power as such, but only so far as he 
possessed some important fief, whether dukedom or 
countship. Before the accession of the Capetian 
dynasty the royal domain consisted of the city of 
Laon and a few insignificant villas ; after the year 987 
it comprised the whole duchy of France, and Hugues 
Capet was thus, in point of real power, the equal of his 
vassals. 

It should not be forgotten that a real hierarchy bound 
together all owners of fiefs, and in this complicated 
system the same individual could be at the same time 
suzerain and vassal. The King of France, for instance, 
was vassal of the Abbot of Saint Denis, and the Duke 
of Burgundy held the same position towards the 



6 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIAN KINGS. 

Bishop of Langres ; thirty-two knights-bannerets owed 
service and homage to the Viscount of Thouars, who, 
in his turn, was a vassal of the Count of Anjou, him- 
self a vassal of the King of France. Our readers will 
see at once that every count was not necessarily 
superior to a viscount and inferior to a duke. The 
Count of Anjou, for example, had nothing to do, 
hierarchically, with the Duke of Burgundy, and the 
only point these two lords had in common was their 
position as vassals of the King of France. 

Three principal ceremonies characterized the feudal 
relations between the lord and his vassal. The latter, 
when doing homage to the former, knelt before him, 
and placing his hand in that of his future suzerain, 
declared that he would become /lis man, and as such 
acknowledged himself bound to defend his life and his 
honour. He then took the oath of faith or fidelity, 
having previously removed his sword and his spurs. 
This was called honimage-lige, and bound the vassal to 
military service for an unlimited time, and on what- 
soever territory the lord thought fit to lead his depen- 
dants. For circumstances and at epochs when war was 
permanent, or nearly so, the hommage-lige prevailed ; 
thus in the code of laws known by the name of "Assises 
de Jerusalem," drawn up after the taking of the Holy 
City by the Crusaders in 1099, it is regarded as the rule. 
The hojHviage simple ov franc W2is of a less stringent 
character ; it implied military service only for the space 
of forty days yearly, within the limits of the fief, and 
with the permission of performing that service by 
deputy. The vassal did homage standing, wearing 
his sword and spurs, and placing one hand on a copy 



FEUDAL FORTRESSES. 7 

of the Gospels. The ceremony once over, the tie 
between the lord and his vassal is complete, and an 
interchange of duties, services, and obligations must 
be the necessary result. We can imagine the scene 
taking place in the hall of one of those imposing 
castles, the ruins of which add even at the present time 
so much picturesqueness to the landscapes in France, 
Germany, England, Italy, and Spain. 

Just as the republics of antiquity had their /oruj/i and 
their agora^ just as the France of Louis XIV. boasted 
of its Versailles, just as modern England possessed 
its court of Parliament, so did the feudal system 
raise its castles and its strongholds as the centre of 
authority and the symbol and the abiding place of 
power. The edifice is generally built upon a height ; 
its architecture is massive, but without any particular 
beauty. A series of towers, either round or square, 
connected together by formidable walls, and pierced 
here and there with loop-holes form the structure. 
At Montlhery there were no less than five concentric 
enclosures commanding each other, and giving ad- 
ditional security to the chateau. You arrive ; the 
entrance-gate, flanked by small towers and sur- 
mounted by a guard-room, presents itself before you. 
Three moats, three drawbridges must be crossed. 
At every step you take, a challenge meets you, and if 
admittance is granted, you find yourself before the 
keep (donjon), a strongly fortified building which con- 
tains the family records and the family treasure. 
The lodgings, farmhouses, stables, and other de- 
pendencies are scattered about to the right and to 
the left, and an underground passage leaves an 




CHATEAU OF M0NTLH£RY. 



FEUDAL DUES. g 

exit from within to the plain or to the neighbouring 
forest. 

There is not a single feature in these splendid 
castles which does not remind us that war is the 
constant occupation of those who dwell within, and 
that military service is the chief obligation which the 
\assal owes to his lord. We have said the c/ii^J\ 
not the only one. The help of ^-ise counsel and of 
wholesome advice is also frequently needed ; it may 
likewise happen that the lord is retained prisoner in 
foreign lands ; the vassals must then club together to 
pay his ransom. When he gives his eldest daughter 
in marriage, when his eldest son is made knight, or 
is about to start for the Crusades, pecuniar}' aids are 
also expected as a matter of course. Estates might, 
and did often, change hands ; others were con- 
fiscated or left without owners, on account of the 
death of the heir: hence fresh and hea\y duties paid 
over to the lord. If the vassal was a minor, the 
suzerain became his guardian, and as such received 
the income till his ward had attained his majorit}-. 
The daughters of the vassal were obliged to receive 
husbands at the hand of the lord, unless they pre- 
ferred forfeitinsT a considerable sum of monev. It 
will be easily imagined that under such a system fiefs 
were .multiplied as much as possible, because ever}^ 
fief meant military- service — a thing of the utmost 
importance in those days — and money, which at all 
times is a matter of great consequence. The right of 
hunting, of fishing, of crossing a river, of escorting 
merchants and other persons of the same description 
had to be purchased. The vassals were compelled to 




A KNIGHT OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE. 



VASSALS AND SERFS, II 

bake their bread in the seigniorial ovens, to grind 
their corn in the seigniorial mill, to make their wine 
in the seigniorial wine-press, paying certain sums for 
the use of conveniences which they were obliged to 
avail themselves of {banalites). 

All the vassals of the same lord were considered as 
pairs or equals, and they formed in their capacity a 
kind of court of justice from which appeals were 
allowed to the lord himself. Whenever in discussions 
or differences agreement was impossible, the case 
was decided by a duel or appeal to arms. The right 
of private warfare was thus not only tolerated, but 
sanctioned as a matter of necessity. All lords had the 
right of pronouncing judicial sentences, but that right 
was not the same in all cases. Only barons enjoying 
the privilege of high justice (haute justice) could con- 
demn to death, and accordingly erect the gallows in 
the neighbourhood of their castles. The middle and 
loiv justice (moyenne justice, basse justice) only ap- 
plied to minor cases, which were punished by fines. 

Lower than the vassals came the serfs who had no 
rights — a whole army of wretched creatures who, 
under their threefold designations of serfs properly 
so called, mainmortables, and vilaiiis, nianants or 
rotiiriers^ were more or less under the absolute de- 
pendence of the feudal baron. Of the serfs, an old 
legist has said that the baron might take from them 
whatever they had, and that he might either right- 
fully or wrongfully keep them in prison whenever and 
as long as he liked, being accountable to God alone. 
The mainmortables were better off ; if they paid regu- 
larly their rents, dues, reliefs, &c., the lord could not 



12 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIAN KINGS. 

exact anything more from them, unless as a punish- 
ment for some misdeed ; but they could not marry 
except with the permission of the lord, and, at their 
death, all their property reverted to him. The 
nianants or roturiers enjoyed their freedom, at any 
rate, and could transmit their property to their 
children, but still they had to put up with certain 
obligations which often rendered their peace and their 
condition, in general, extremely precarious. The 
vassals had, as we have seen, to pay to the baron 
certain fines, reliefs, dues, &c. ; we need hardly say 
that the serfs and vilains were treated in a far more 
arbitrary fashion still. Besides contributions in kind 
and in money, they found themselves compelled to 
give away their time and their labour without the 
slightest compensation. When a road had to be 
made on the manorial estate, a building to be erected 
or repaired, furniture or agricultural implements to be 
provided, the serfs were set to work as part of the 
obligations to which they were bound. In fact, the 
serfs were made to feel constantly that they had no 
free action, and that they could dispose neither of 
their service nor of their labour. 

What was the Church doing in the meanwhile, and 
what part did it play in the general progress of social 
institutions? There is no doubt that the influence 
exercised by it was a beneficial one as a whole, but it 
had become part and parcel of the feudal system, and 
the archbishops, bishops, and abbots exercised tem- 
poral power as well as spiritual authority. We are 
at first inclined to wonder perhaps when we read that 
during the Middle Ages the Church possessed, in 



WARLIKE PRELATES. I3 

France as well as in England, more than one-fifth 
of the whole territory ; but we must remember that 
whilst, on the one hand, the threat of excommuni- 
cation prevented many otherwise unscrupulous 
persons from tampering with Church property, the zeal 
and the piety of the great majority of the rich faithful 
resulted, on the other, in grants of land and other 
substantial donations to churches, abbeys, and monas- 
teries. Despite the character which ordination had 
stamped upon them, ecclesiastical dignitaries retained 
much of those fighting qualities so essentially be- 
longing to feudalism. In his history of France 
(vol. ii.), Michelet mentions several amusing in- 
stances of this fact. As early as Charlemagne the 
bishops are indignant when a peaceful mule is brought 
round to them if they wish to ride ; what they want 
is a charger; they jump upon it unaided ; they hunt, 
they fight ; the blows they deal with their swords are 
their style of blessing ; the penances they impose are 
the heavy and formidable strokes of their battle-axes. 
We hear of a bishop deposed by the whole episcopal 
bench as pacific and not sufficiently courageous ; the 
barons became clergymen, the clergymen barons. 

Such, in brief, was the state of French society when 
Hugues Capet ascended the throne. And here the 
question arises : Who was Hugues Capet ? What 
do we know about his origin ? There exists a chanson 
de geste (romance of chivalry) which bears the name 
of that king, and where occurs the following passage : 

" Pour ce vous lyray la vie d'un guerrier 
De coy on doit I'istore et loer et prisier, 
Et le grant hardement que Dieux ly fist querquer 



14 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIAN KINGS, 

Pour soustenir droiture et honneur exauchier. 

Ce fu Huez Capez c'on apelle bouchier : 

Ce fu voirs, mais moult space en savoit du mestier.'* 

*' Therefore I shall read you the life of a warrior, 
Whose history should be praised and valued, 
And the great courage which God led him to seek 
To uphold right and exalt courage. 
This was Hugues Capet, whom they called a butcher : 
This was true, but he knew very little of the trade." 

Hugues Capet, a butcher (the nephew of a butcher 
as the song says elsewhere) ; this statement is odd 
enough, but what is more singular still, the same origin 
is ascribed to the first Capetian king by Dante 
(" Purgatorio "), the chronicler of Saint Bertin, Villon 
(" Ballade de I'appel "), and Cornelius Agrippa (" De 
vanitate scientiarum "). We know, indeed, that the 
great Italian poet was animated by a spirit of hostility 
when he ascribed to Hugues Capet so low an origin ; 
we are also aware that the author of the chronicle of 
Saint Bertin quotes the legend only to contradict it ; 
but what motive can Villon and others have had to 
give it credence, if it was not the wish to flatter the 
bourgeoisie by identifying with it a brave soldier, or, 
on the other hand, to represent Hugues Capet as a 
mere usurper? 

By opposition to this hypothesis some chroniclers 
have endeavoured, with more ingenuity than success, 
to find a family connection between the Duke of 
France and the Carlovingians, just as at an earlier 
period a fanciful genealogical tree had been devised, 
showing that Pepin the Short could trace back his 
origin to the Merovingian dynasty. Be the result 
what it may, Hugues Capet ruled over France for 



THE CHURCH, 1 5 

the space of nine years, and died in 996, at the com- 
paratively early age of fifty-four. When his son 
Robert ascended the throne, France, as well as the 
rest of Europe, was under the impression of extreme 
terror. It was a general belief that the end of the 
world would take place in the year 1 000, and a 
society so disorganized as feudalism still was, could 
not but be much struck by that idea, unwarranted as 
it might be. One good result came out of it in the 
shape of great moral improvement ; and if the Church 
profited through the liberality of the faithful, in the 
shape of donations, legacies, &c., it is only fair to say 
that the ecclesiastical dignitaries, the clergy, both 
secular and regular, did their utmost to enforce disci- 
pline, to put down abuses, and to check the ambition 
and wanton disposition of the barons and lords. 
Robert has left behind him the reputation of one of 
the most pious kings who ever occupied the French 
throne. " More of a monk than of a sovereign," says 
some historian ; and the poets and chroniclers con- 
tinually allude to the " times of good King Robert." 
He got into trouble with the Pope for having married 
a distant relative, Bertha, daughter of Conrad the 
Peaceful, King of Aries, and widow of Eudes I., Count 
of Blois. In spite of the threats of the Court of 
Rome, notwithstanding the express decision of a 
council, Robert persisted in retaining his wife, and 
it was only in 1006 that he repudiated her, and mar- 
ried Constance, daughter of William Taillefer, Count 
of Toulouse. The appearance of the Southerners in 
Paris seems to have created not only astonishment, 
but disgust. " Conceited men," says the chronicler, 



1 6 THE FIRST FOUR CAPET I AN KINGS. 

Radulph Glaber, " of light character and dissolute, 
life ; their dress, the very trappings of their horses 
are odd and fantastic ; they are close-shaved like 
stage-performers, their hair is cut short, their buskins 
are absurdly long ; they jump rather than walk ; 
they have an utter disregard for their word, and no 
one dare trust them." The contrast between Robert's 
kindly disposition and the haughtiness of his queen 
is repeatedly dwelt upon by the historians, who illus- 
trate it by characteristic anecdotes. "Constance never 
jokes," says the monk Helgand. She incited to 
rebellion, first, Robert's eldest son, Hugues, who died 
in 1025 ; and, secondly, his third son, Henry. The 
peaceful reign of the second Capetian monarch was 
marked, however, by events of considerable import- 
ance. He was offered the crown of Italy and the 
dukedom of Lorraine ; conscious, no doubt, of his 
own weakness he refused both, and if he acted rightly 
in declining the former presentation, we must own 
that he was not well-advised when he refused the 
latter; after a war which lasted sixteen years he 
obtained possession of the dukedom of Burgundy, 
which, however, was lost temporarily to the crown by 
Henry the next king. 

Another important fact, which we must not leave 
unmentioned, is the insurrection of the Normandy 
peasants in 997. The insolence and tyranny of the 
barons was felt in that part of France more than any- 
where else, for the simple reason that the serfs and 
the commoners constituted the chief part of the 
original population, whilst the aristocracy belonged 
to the invaders who had scarcely for a century settled 



ATTITUDE OF THE SERFS. ly 

down in Neustria. Why should authority be in the 
hands of comparative strangers, especially when it was 
so brutally misused ? 

Fellowship in suffering knit together all the victims 
of feudal tyranny ; after the work of the day was over 
the inhabitants of the same neighbourhood used to 
assemble together, and discuss the long tale of their 
grievances, the duties they had to pay, the corvees to 
which they were subjected, the labour for which they 
received no compensation. 

*' Les paysans et les vilains, 
Ceux du bocage et ceux des plaines, 
Par vingt, par trente, par centaines, 
Ont tenu plusieurs parlemiints ; 
Que jamais, par leur volonte 
N'aront seingneur ni avoe." 

" The peasants and the vilains, 
Those of the woods and those of the plains, 
By twenties, by thirties, by hundreds, 
Have held several parliaments 
(To the effect) that never with their consent 
Shall they have lord or champion." 

The chronicler, William of Jumieges, gives us an 
interesting account of the origin and development of 
a vast association, having its ramifications throughout 
the length and breadth of the duchy, and the object 
of which was nothing else but the destruction of the 
feudal system. Unfortunately the plot was discovered, 
and the members of the central committee, if we may 
use such a name, were seized by a body of soldiers 
under the orders of the Count of Evreux, uncle of the 
then Duke of Normandy, Richard II. They were all 
frightfully maltreated, and those who survived were 



l8 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIAN KINGS. 

sent back to their villages with the view of inspiring 
terror and submission to the rest of the population. 

A system of persecution organized against the 
Jews must also be noted, the cause of this being, as 
was then alleged, the destruction of the Church of the 
Holy Sepulchre by the Fatimite Caliph of Egypt. 
The first public execution of heretics likewise took 
place about that time ; thirteen were burned at Or- 
leans, in 1022; Toulouse and other places witnessed 
similar executions. One of the unfortunate persons 
thus sentenced to death had been confessor to Queen 
Constance ; as he passed by her side on his way to 
the place of execution, she put out one of his eyes 
with a wand she held in her right hand. 

Death surprised Robert whilst he was busy copy- 
ing the obituary register of the Church of Melun 
(103 1). His third son, Henry I., succeeded him, the 
first being dead, and the second incapacitated by 
weakness of mind. Constance would have wished 
her fourth son, Robert, to obtain the crown ; but this 
could not be, and Henry had to satisfy the ambi- 
tion of Robert by giving over to him the duchy of 
Burgundy. 

During the early part of the Middle Ages several 
cases took place of marriages annulled by the Pope, be- 
cause they had been brought about between persons con- 
nected together by relationship, at degrees condemned 
by the Church. Henry L, determined to avoid such 
a difficulty, sought and obtained the hand of Anne, 
daughter of the Grand Duke of Russia. It was 
reported that she descended, on her mother's side, 
from Philip, King of Macedon. 



ROBERT OF NORMANDY — FOULQUES NERRA. ig 

If the first Capetians were naturally of a timid 
disposition, and better fit for the quiet seclusion of a 
monastery than for the turmoil of political life, the 
surrounding lords, on the contrary, obtained an un- 
desirable reputation by their crimes and their ambi- 
tion. Robert, Duke of Normandy, was one of them; 
nicknamed t/te Magnificent by his barons, he ap- 
pears to have rather deserved the sobriquet of tJie 
Devil, which the common people bestowed upon him. 
His first step in public life was a crime, for he usurped 
the Duchy of Normandy by poisoning the lawful 
ruler, Richard III., his brother, and the chief barons. 
He then interfered with all his neighbours, and, 
finally, having endeavoured to atone for his wicked- 
ness by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he died in Asia 
Minor on his way home. His son, who was destined 
to be so famous under the name of William the Con- 
queror, after having succeeded in reducing, with the 
help of the King of France, his turbulent vassals to 
obedience, ended by turning against Henry, and de- 
feating the royal forces in several encounters, more 
particularly at Mortemer, in 1054. 

Foulques Nerra (the black). Count of Anjou, was 
also a good specimen of the mediaeval baron. When 
a man undertakes no less than three pilgrimages to 
the Holy Land, we are justified in believing that the 
catalogue of his sins was particularly heavy ; such 
was certainly the case with Foulques Nerra. Con- 
stance, Robert's queen, was his niece. She com- 
plained to him one day of a favourite of her husband. 
The Count of Anjou immediately sent for twelve 
knights, and ordered them to start in search of the 



20 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIAN KINGS. 

favourite, and stab him wherever they might find him. 
Foulques Nerra had two wives ; according to one 
version, he ordered the former one to be burned alive ; 
according to another, he had her thrown down a 
precipice, and as she contrived to escape, he stabbed 
her himself He ill-used his second wife so much 
that she was obliged to retire to the Holy Land. We 
are not much astonished at learning that, overcome 
by remorse, Foulques Nerra caused himself to be 
fastened to a hurdle, and thus dragged through the 
streets of Jerusalem, whilst two of his servants 
scourged him with all their might, and he kept re- 
peating, " Have pity, O Lord, on the traitor, the per- 
jured Foulques ! " He died (1040) on his way home, 
leaving the countship of Anjou to his son Geoffrey 
Martel, as warlike as he had been himself, and who 
was a powerful ally of the King of France against the 
Duke of Normandy. 

We thus see that the feudal system was bearing 
already its fruit in a plentiful crop of acts charac- 
terized by cruelty, abuse of power, and unbridled 
ambition. At this point (1041) the Church stepped 
in, and resolved upon mitigating, if ever so little, the 
distress from which the lower classes of society were 
suffering. Accordingly an edict was published, 
couched pretty nearly in the following terms : " From 
the Wednesday evening to the Monday morning in 
every week, on high festivals, and during the whole 
of Advent and of Lent, all deeds of warfare are ex- 
pressly forbidden. It shall be the truce of God. 
Whosoever violates it shall compound for his life, or 
be banished from the country." As we may suppose, 



PHILIP J. 21 

whilst this new law gave the greatest satisfaction to 
the mass of the population, it was vigorously resisted 
by barons such as the Count of Anjou and the Duke 
of Normandy ; but they were finally obliged to 
acquiesce in a decision which was so beneficial to 
society at large. 

Philip I. was only seven years old when he suc- 
ceeded his father. Indolent and feeble, he saw the 
whole of Western Europe rushing in various direc- 
tions, carried away by the love of adventure, without 
feeling the slightest desire to follow their example. 
Considering his inert disposition, it is a wonder that 
Philip, for the sake of joke, should have exposed him- 
self to the fury of such a man as William the Con- 
queror. " When will that fat fellow be confined ? " 
said he, alluding to the King of England's stoutness. 
" I shall go and be churched in Paris, with ten thou- 
sand lances instead of wax tapers." William nearly 
kept his word ; marched into the domains of the King 
of France, destroying everything, burning towns and 
villages, and putting the inhabitants to the sword. 
The city of Mantes was reduced to a heap of ruins, 
and only death arrested the progress of the infuriated 
William. He expired at Rouen from the results of 
a wound he had received at the sacking of Mantes. 

Philip carried on, with the same indolence, against 
William Rufus the policy of antagonism which he 
had displayed in his relations with the Conqueror, and 
helped to swell the list of French monarchs excom- 
municated by the Pope for illegal marriage. He died 
in 1108. 



11. 



PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND — THE 
CRUSADES — CHIVALRY. 

An old writer belonging to the seventh century, 
named Marculphus, has left under the title of 
forjjtulcB, a series of enactments or decisions on points 
of law. Amongst these documents is the following 
curious piece of which we give a translation : " Be it 
known unto you, holy fathers, bishops, abbots and 
abbesses, dukes, counts, vicars, and all people 
believing in God and fearing Him, that the pil- 
grim , a native of , has come to us and 

asked our advice, because, incited by the great 

enemy of mankind, he has killed his own son or 

his nephew ; for this reason, and in accordance 

with custom and canon law, we have pronounced that 
the aforesaid should devote — years to a pil- 
grimage. When, therefore, presents himself before 

you, kindly give him lodging, accommodation, and 
fire, bread and water, and allow him to repair at once 
to the holy places." This kind of passport shown 
that even as far back as the Merovingian dynasty pil- 
grimages to Jerusalem and to the Holy Land in 
expiation of some notorious crime or act of wicked- 




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Before the Crusades 



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to P/sa-> 



COUNCIL OF CLERMONT. 23 

ness were of frequent occurrence. The culprit had 
often to wear around his neck, his waist, and his 
wrists, chains forged out of his own armour, thus bear- 
ing about him both the memorials of his social 
position and their marks of his misdeeds. The pil- 
grims started on their long and dangerous voyage, and 
those of them who were fortunate enough to return 
home after a protracted absence, brought back mar- 
vellous tales respecting the sacred relics which the 
Holy City offered to the veneration of the faithful, 
and heart-rendering stories of the sufferings which the 
Europeans had to bear from the combined Jews and 
Mahometans. 

It was natural that in course of time pilgrimages of 
this kind should lead to military interventions ; the 
earliest appeal to arms proceeded from a Frenchman, 
Gerbert of Aurillac, who became Pope under the 
name of Sylvester II. (1002) ; and the powerful 
eloquence of another Frenchman, Peter the Hermit, 
a native of Picardy, led to the departure of the first 
Crusading army. Well might the Chronicler Guibert 
de Nogent speak of these expeditions as G^s^a Dei 
per Francos. 

A general council had been announced as about to 
meet at Clermont on the i8th of November, 1095. 
An immense concourse of people gathered together, 
and in their midst appeared a man, wretched to look 
at, small in stature, bare arms and bare feet ; his 
dress was a species of woollen tunic and a cloak of 
coarse cloth. That was Peter the Hermit ; his pierc- 
ing eye seemed to penetrate into the hearer's heart, 
and no one could resist the earnestness of his preach- 



24 PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND. 

ing ; he had just arrived from Italy where he had 
persuaded Pope Urban II. to summon the people to 
arms on behalf of the Christian faith. The answer to 
his discourse was unanimous : " Diex el volt ! Diex el 
volt!" ("God wills it") resounded on all sides, and several 
thousands of men, fastening to their garments, as a 
rallying sign, a cross cut out of red cloth, expressed 
their determination of starting at once for the Holy 
Land. The army was indeed a motley assemblage, 
and the van-guard made up for their want of dis- 
cipline by their enthusiasm and their simple faith. A 
nobleman from Burgundy bearing the significant 
name of Gautier sans avoir (Walter the Penniless), 
went first, leading a host of fifteen thousand men ; 
then came Peter the Hermit at the head of one 
hundred thousand pilgrims ; finally a German priest, 
Gotteschalck, followed by fifteen thousand more, 
formed the rear. The disorders committed by all 
that rabble were so great that the inhabitants of the 
countries through which they passed rose up against 
them, and made a fearful slaughter of them. The 
handful which succeeded in reaching the shores of 
Asia Minor fell under the sword of the Turks in the 
plains of Nics^a, all but three thousand men and 
Peter the Hermit. 

In the meanwhile the real warriors of the ex- 
pedition were preparing and mustering to the number 
of six hundred thousand foot soldiers and one hun- 
dred thousand cavalry. They, too, formed three 
divisions. The first, consisting of men from the 
northern districts (Lorraine and the banks of the 
Rhine), went through the basin of the Danube ; they 




GODFREY OF BOULOGNE IN THE MOVING TOWER. 



26 PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND. 

were commanded by Godefroi de Bouillon (Godfrey of 
Boulogne), Duke of Lower Lorraine, a descendant of 
Charlemagne, and particularly distinguished by his 
courage, his loyalty, and his genuine piety. The 
next corps, consisting of the Crusaders belonging to 
the central provinces (Normandy, France, and Bur- 
gundy), under the orders of Hugues, Count of Ver- 
mandois, Robert, Duke of Normandy, and Stephen, 
Count of Blois, went to embark in the seaports of the 
kingdom of Naples. Raymond of Saint Gilles, 
Count of Toulouse, and the Bishop of Le Puy, were 
at the head of the third division, chiefly composed of 
men from Southern France. They marched through 
the Alps, and afterwards through Friuli and Dalmatia. 
The general rendezvous was Constantinople. 

The opposition of character between the Franks, 
rough, warlike, and uncultivated on the one hand, and 
the effeminate, astute, plausible and servile Byzantines 
on the other, led to disagreeables and to collisions, 
which it required all the diplomatic skill of the 
Emperor Alexis to minimize and to smooth away. 
He contrived to exact from the chiefs of the expedi- 
tion the promise that they would do him homage for 
whatever territories they might happen to conquer 
in Asia Minor, and he felt considerable relief when 
the last soldier of the army had left Europe. The 
Crusaders started at the beginning of the spring of 
1097, and on the 15th of May they laid siege to 
Nicaea. There as well as at Dorylaeum they signally 
defeated the Turks, and arrived before Antioch on the 
1 8th of October. By this time the invading army 
was very much reduced, for on their way they were 



THE CRUSADERS IN ASIA. 27 

naturally obliged to leave garrisons at all the points 
most liable to be attacked, without taking any ac- 
count of the results of famine, sickness, and other 
such causes. The capture of Antioch after a siege of 
six months proved to be another serious calamity, 
inasmuch as the Crusaders, in order to indemnify 
themselves, so to say, for the hardships and toils of 
the journey, indulged in excesses which rendered 
them peculiarly liable to be attacked by pestilential 
diseases. The wisest course would have been to march 
straight towards Jerusalem, instead of which they 
lingered for six months in Antioch, and a consider- 
able proportion of them were struck down by the 
plague. The remainder, fifty thousand in number, 
skirting as closely as possible the Mediterranean 
seashore in order to keep in communication with the 
Genoese, on whom they depended for provisions, 
arrived at last in view of the Holy City. The 
assault took place on the 14th of July, 1099, at break 
of day. Tancred de Hauteville and Godefroi de 
Bouillon were the first to penetrate into the city. 
The struggle was terrible ; the Mahometans occupied 
the mosque of Omar, where they vigorously defended 
them.selves ; fighting went on from street to street ; 
one chronicler tells us that the horses waded in blood, 
and it is certain that acts of unparalleled cruelty were 
committed. When the work of actual conquest was 
over, and the next thing was to organize the new 
empire, the enthusiasm of the Crusaders sobered 
down, and the thoughts of many went homewards. 
Godefroi and Tancred gradually saw their companions 
forsake them and return to Europe ; only three hun- 



28 PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND. 

dred knights remained faithful to the cause which 
they had embraced. Fifty years elapsed before a 
fresh Crusade was attempted. 

It is interesting to see the feudal system introduced 
in the East amongst Biblical associations ; fiefs were 
established on exactly the same plan as those in 
Europe ; the principalities of Antioch and of Edessa 
were governed respectively by Bohemond and Bald- 
win ; to them were added later on the countship 
of Tripoli and the marquisate of Tyre. There were 
lordships and feudal tenures at Tiberias, Ramlah, 
Jaffa. A code of laws was indispensable for the 
proper government of the European colony; Godefroi 
de Bouillon, now King of Jerusalem, caused it to be 
compiled under the title of "Assises de Jerusalem," 
"a precious monument," says Gibbon, "of feudal juris- 
prudence. The new code, attested by the seals of the 
King, the Patriarch, and the Viscount of Jerusalem, 
was deposited in the Holy Sepulchre, enriched with 
the improvements of succeeding times, and respect- 
fully consulted as often as any question arose in the 
Tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and city 
all was lost ; the fragments of the written law were 
preserved by jealous traditions and variable practice 
till the middle of the thirteenth century ; the code 
was restored by the pen of John d'Ibelin, Count of 
Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories ; and the final 
revision was accomplished in the year 1 369, for the use 
of the Latin kingdom of Cyprus." ^ Although the text 
of the Assises in the form we have it now is not by far 
of so old a date as was at first supposed, yet it is about 

^ Gibbon, "Decline and Fall," chap. Iviii. 



"ASSISES DE JERUSALEM.'' 29 

sixty years older than the Coutiimiers, or law compila- 
tions used in Europe, and has therefore consider- 
able interest ; it is one of the fullest and most 
trustworthy sources of information respecting the 
feudal system. It is noteworthy that the Assises, 
from the political point of view, establish the 
sovereignty of the nation as represented by the 
aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. " The justice and 
freedom of the constitution," we still quote Gibbon, 
" were maintained by two tribunals of unequal dig- 
nity. . . - The king, in person, presided in the upper 
court, the court of the barons. Of these the four most 
conspicuous were the Prince of Galilee, the Lord of 
Sidon and Caesarea, and the Counts of Jaffa and Tri- 
poli, who, perhaps, with the constable and marshal, were 
in a special manner the compeers and judges of each 
other. But all the nobles who held their lands im- 
mediately of the crown were entitled and bound to 
attend the king's court; and each baron exercised a 
similar jurisdiction in the subordinate assemblies of 
his own feudatories. The connection of lord and 
vassal was honourable and voluntary ; reverence was 
due to the benefactor, protection to the dependant ; but 
they mutually pledged their faith to each other, and 
the obligation on either side might be suspended by 
neglect, or dissolved by injury." It is not too much 
to say that, with the " Assises de Jerusalem" a model of 
political liberty was introduced in Asia, the first and 
indispensable condition of these laws being the assent 
of those whose obedience they required, and for whose 
benefit they were designed. 

The share which the French took in the Crusades 



30 PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND. 

makes of that event an important part In their 
national history. The first, as we have just seen, was 
nearly exclusively their work ; they divided the 
second (1147) with the Germans, the third (1190) 
with the English, the fourth (1202) with the Venetians. 
The fifth (12 17) and the sixth (1228) hardly deserve 
to be noticed ; the seventh (1248) and the eighth 
(1270) were solely and entirely French. The move- 
ment of expansion which led, at an interval of fifteen 
centuries, the inhabitants of ancient Gaul to break 
through their frontiers and visit foreign climes is 
worth noting. They crossed the Pyrenees, as the 
Celtiberians had done ; the British Channel, as the 
Belgae and the Kymri ; the Alps, as the Boii and the 
Insubres ; the Rhine and the Danube, as those tribes 
who went to set Alexander at defiance, plundered 
Delphi, and struck Asia with fear. In all these cases 
the courage and daring displayed were the same, but 
in that of the Crusades the moving power was totally 
different. Formerly the French emigrated in quest 
of fortune and of material prosperity ; when they 
took up the badge of the cross and marched towards 
Jerusalem, they were actuated by a moral principle 
which doubled their energy and sanctified their 
actions. M. Cox (" Epochs of History") has summed 
up as follows the chief results of the Crusades : — 

" We must not forget that by rolling back the tide 
of Mahometan conquest from Constantinople for 
upwards of four centuries, they probably saved 
Europe from horrors the recital of which might 
even now make our ears tingle ; that by weaken- 
ing the resources and power of the barons they 



^ 



RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES. 3 1 

strengthened the authority of the kings acting in 
alliance with the citizens of the great towns ; that 
this alliance broke up the feudal system, gradually 
abolished serfdom, and substituted the authority of a 
common law for the arbitrary will of chiefs, who for 
real or supposed affronts rushed to the arbitrament of 
private war. . . . These enterprises have affected the 
commonwealth of Europe in ways of which the 
promoters never dreamed. They left a wider gulf 
between the Greek and the Latin Churches, between 
the subjects of the Eastern Empire and the nations 
of Western Europe ; but by the mere fact of throwing 
East and West together they led gradually to that 
interchange of thought and that awakening of the 
human intellect to which we owe all that distinguishes 
our modern civilization from the religious and political 
systems of the Middle Ages." We must not forget 
trade, commerce, and manufactures, which received 
from the Crusades a wonderful development ; in the 
first place, the necessity of providing the armies of the 
Crusaders with arms, clothing, harness, horses, &c., led 
to an increase of industry which has never stopped 
since ; in the second place, the markets of Europe 
being now supplied with the produce of Asia, a new 
source of financial prosperity was opened, and soon 
became most popular. 

The foundation of religious orders of knighthood 
was another result of the Crusades ; thus, in iioo, a 
Provencal gentleman, Gerard de Martigues formed 
the Order of the Knights Hospitallers, subsequently 
known as the Knights of Rhodes, and then as the 
Knights of Malta. The Knights of the Temple, 




KING OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 



CHIVALRY. 33 

established (iii8) by the Frenchman Hugues des 
Payens, soon became formidable opponents of the 
Hopitallers^ and whilst carrying on against each other 
a very bitter feud, they were both equally suspected 
by the Church and dreaded by the kings of the 
various countries to which they belonged. 

Chivalry is an institution which both affected the 
character of the Crusades, and received from them 
in return a powerful impulse ; it was another means 
by which the nobles separated themselves from the 
people, for no one might be a knight but a man of 
high birth. At the early age of seven he was re- 
moved from the care of women, and placed in the 
household of some lord or baron, who was supposed 
to give him the example of all chivalrous virtues. 
As page, varlet, or dainoiseau, the lad accompanied 
the lord and lady of the manor on their rides, 
their excursions, their hawking parties, &c., and thus 
trained himself to the fatigues of war. At fifteen 
the page or varlet passed on to the higher rank of an 
eciiyer (Squire) ; he might be an eciiyei^ d'honneur or 
eciiyer de corps in personal attendance upon his master 
or mistress ; as ecuyer tranchant he carved for them in 
thC' dining-hall ; as ecuyer darrnes he carried the 
baron's lance and the various parts of his armour, and 
whatever rank he occupied, he endeavoured, by some 
act of courage, to merit the coveted honour of re- 
ceiving, at the age of twenty-one, the order of 
knighthood. 

" At last the day came which was to hold so im- 
portant a place in the young man's life. He prepared 
himself for the initiation by symbolic ceremonies. A 



34 



PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND. 



bath, signifying the purity both of the body and of 
the soul, the night-watch, confession often made aloud, 
the holy communion, preceded the reception of the 
young knight. Clothed in vestments of white linen, 
another symbol of moral purity, he was led to the 
altar by two discreet men of tried courage and ex- 
perience, who acted as his military sponsors. A priest 






KNIGHT AND ARMS. 

celebrated mass and consecrated the sword. The 
baron, whose business it was to arm the new cham- 
pion, struck him on the shoulder with the sword- 
blade, saying to him, ' I make thee a knight in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost.' He then bade him swear to em- 
ploy his weapons in defence of the weak and the 
oppressed, embraced him, and girt him with his sword. 



HERALDRY. 35 

The ceremony often concluded with a tournament. 
Chivalry conferred privileges and imposed duties. 
Formed in associations, and bound together by a 
sentiment of honour and of fraternity, the knights 
defended each other, and if one of them behaved in 
a disloyal or dishonourable manner, he was solemnly 
disgraced and condemned to death. Courtesy and 
respect for the weaker sex were virtues always ex- 
pected from a knight. "^ 

Chivalry was, to all intents and purposes, a kind of 
family, and as a natural result of that idea sprang up the 
science of heraldry and the habit of armorial bearings. 
The warriors of antiquity, it is true, caused to be 
painted on their shields their banners, and their arms, 
the devices, colours and emblems by which they 
might be distinguished from a distance ; but these 
symbols were essentially personal and peculiar to 
the individuals who wore them. Mediaeval heraldry 
was a totally different thing ; armorial bearings 
formed a family distinction, the more important in 
proportion as it could be traced further back. 

" N'i a riche home ne Baron, 
Ki n'ait lez li son gonfanon, 
U gonfanon u altre enseigne, " 

" There is no rich man nor Baron 
Who has not his banner near him, 
Either banner or other standard." 

Thus says Robert Wace in his "Roman de Rou," and, 
of course, the standard or pennon was characterized 
by a distinctive cognizance of some kind. The habit 

^ Cheruel, " Dictionnaire des Institutions," &c. 



36 PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND. 

soon spread of reproducing the armorial bearings, not 
only on the shield, but on the helmet, the trappings of 
the horses, the castle gates, the furniture, the dresses 
of the ladies — on everything, in fact, which belonged 
to the family. Colleges of heralds were instituted, 
with laws, rules, and a procedure of their own ; 
corporations, guilds, confraternities of every kind had 
their devices, their mottoes, and their crests. Raymond 
de Saint Gilles, Count of Toulouse (1047-1105), is 
supposed to have been the first baron who boasted of 
real armorial bearings, and the leopards which appear 
on the royal standard of England are thought to 
have originated from the animals painted in gold, 
which ornamented the shield of Geoffrey Plantagenet 
(about 1 1 27). 

To the creation of chivalry we must also ascribe 
the origin of family names. Till then names had 
merely been personal, each man only bearing the 
one which he had received at his baptism ; this, how- 
ever, was soon found insufficient ; some then added to 
their own names that of their fathers ; others adopted 
familiar sobriquets, such as /e Blanc, le Bon, Droitnrier^ 
Tardif, &c., or designations borrowed from their pro- 
fession {Le Ma ire, Prevot, Le Boutei/iier, &c.), or trade 
{BoucJier, Charpentier, Flechier, &c.). Many were 
satisfied with adding the designation of their native 
place, or some other local peculiarity, such as Guil- 
laume de Lorris, Bernard de Ventadour, Jean de la 
Vigne, &c. 

As it might naturally be expected, the literature 
and fine arts in France, as well as in all the countries 
throughout Europe, were powerfully influenced by 



38 EARLY FRENCH LITERATURE. 

the two movements we have just described — chivalry 
and the Crusades. Up to the eleventh century, the 
Church had enjoyed, if we may so say, the monopoly 
of intellectual culture, and illustrious as are Hincmar, 
Roscelin, and Berenger,we can hardly call them French 
writers ; the earliest specimens of the national litera- 
ture of France, with the exception of the famous 
" Strasburg Oaths," belong to the tenth century ; they 
are the cantileney or song of Sainte Eulalie, a poem 
on the Passion, a life of St. Leger, and a poem on 
Boethius. 

The River Loire, which runs through France from 
the south-east to the west, divides the country into 
two unequal parts, each of which had during the 
Middle Ages a legislation, a language, and a litera- 
ture of its own. South of the Loire was the country 
of Langue d'oc, so called because the term indicating 
affirmation in that language was oc (L. hoc). This 
region included necessarily a considerable number of 
dialects which together with many grammatical 
peculiarities had one common feature : " The general 
language was distinguished from Northern French by 
the survival to a greater degree of the vowel cha- 
racter of Latin. The vocabulary was less dissolved 
and corroded by foreign influence, and the inflections 
remained more distinct. The result, as in Spanish 
and Italian, was a language more harmonious, softer, 
and more cunningly cadenced than Northern French, 
but endowed with far less vigour, variety, and 
freshness." ^ 

North of the Loire we find the Langue d'oil (L. 

^ Saintsbury, "History of French Literature." 



SUBJECTS TREATED BY POETS. 39 

Hoc illiid), which, after a series of important modifica- 
tions, was destined to survive its rival, and to become 
the language of modern France. 

Poetry was here, as in all countries, the earliest 
form of literature, and when a twelfth-century poet 
wanted to exercise his skill and his imaginative 
powers on some subject or person worthy of being 
celebrated, he had his choice out of three classes of 
topics equally well calculated to interest his hearers : 
(i) Classical antiquity offered to his genius or his 
talent many a noble and inspiriting theme (Alex- 
ander the Great and his campaigns, the siege of Troy, 
&c., &c.) ; (2) National history teemed with glorious 
names which might well kindle enthusiasm within 
the breast of a true poet (Charlemagne, Roland, 
Doon of Mentz, Hugh Capet, &c.) ; (3) The wonder- 
ful exploits of King Arthur and the Knights of the 
Round Table, the magic powers of Merh'n the En- 
chanter, the Quest of the Holy Grail, were a source 
of composition not less abundant, nor less interesting, 
than the two others.^ A native of Arras, Jean Bodel, 
himself the author of one of the chief mediaeval epics, 
" La Chanson des Saxons," has described with much 
accuracy, in the following lines, the difference which 
separates these three categories of poems from each 
other — 



Ne sont que trois matieres a nul home entandant: 

De France, et de Bretaigne, et de Rome la grant : 

Et de ces trois matieres n'i a nule semblant {resemblance) ; 

Li conte de Bretaigne sont si vain {frivolous) et plaisant ; 

Cil {those) de Rome sont sage et de san {sense^ reason) aprenant, 

Cil de France de voir {tj^ziih) chaque jor apparant." 



40 CHANSON DE GESTES. 

•"There are only three subjects for a clever man : 
France, Brittany, and Rome the great : 
And there is no similarity between these three subjects ; 
The tales of Brittany are frivolous and pleasing, 
Those of Rome are v\nse and sensible ; 
Those of France tell us the truth every day. " 

The compositions borrowed either from classical 
antiquity or from national traditions {Chansoti de 
Roland^ Doon de Mayence, Aliscans^ Ogier le Danois) 
bore the common name of chafisons de geste, because 
they treated of the high deeds (L. gestd) of the heroes 
of ancient time. As we are not writing here a history 
of French literature, we shall not enter into any 
further details about these works ; we need only say 
that in describing the lives and actions of men long 
gone by, poets of the twelfth century could not help 
ascribing to Charlemagne's contemporaries or even to 
the companions of the King of Macedon, the manners 
and customs amidst which they themselves lived ; 
and so it is that the most complete and minute his- 
tory of chivalry in all its details and particulars is to be 
found in the works of the Trouveres [Troubadours in 
Langued'oc) recited or sung by them and by their ^t- 
tending JO Hg/eurs in the palaces of the feudal lords, or 
in the cours d'avwur of Provence and Aquitaine. We 
may say in concluding this part of our subject, that 
the literature of Southern France does not boast of 
any chanson de geste, so far as we know, except the 
Girartz de Rossilko, and an epic on Alexander the 
Great by Auberi of Besangon, the first hundred lines 
of which have alone been handed down to us. 

The Crusades could not but infuse fresh vigour 
into literature, either by stirring up the zeal of those 



SIRVENTES. 



41 



who had already been moved by the eloquence of 
popular preachers, or by denouncing to universal con- 
tempt the cowards who refused to join the expedi- 
tions. Irony and faith on this occasion combined 
their forces, and what sermons often failed to do was 
accomplished by those short satirical pieces to which 
the name of sirvente has been given (from servir, 
says Dietz, because it is composed by a retainer in 
the service of his master) — 

" Or s'en iront cil vaillant bacheler 
Ki aiment Dieu et I'onour de cest mont, 
*• Ki sagenient voelent a Dieu aller, 

Et li morveus, li cendreus demourront." 

"Now the valiant bachelors will go 
Who love God and the honour of this world, 
Who wisely wish to go to God, 
And the cowards, the base, will remain." 

Thus said the King of Navarre ; we can under- 
stand, however, that before leaving, a knight such as 
Guillaume de Poitiers would turn many a time 
towards the family castle, and exclaim, his eyes full 
of tears — 

" Aissi lais tot quant amer suelh (L. solehaui) 
Cavalairia et orguelh ! 
Li departir de la doulce contree 
Oil la belle est, m'a mis en grant tristor. 

Laissier m'estuest {mefaut) la riens {chose, L. revi) qu'ai plus amee 
For Dom le Dieu servir, mon criator." 

" I leave here all that I used to ove, 
Tournaments and magnificence. 
The fact of quitting the pleasant country, 
Where is my lady-love, has plunged me in great sorrow. 
I must leave what I have most loved, 
In order to serve the Lord God my creator." 



42 BERTRAM DE BORN. 

Often a faint-hearted knight, having quieted his 
conscience by an insignificant expedition, tried to 
come back stealthily to his baronial halls ; the 
sirvente immediately seized upon him, and denounced 
him to public contempt, adding in cutting invective 
to the curses of the Church — 

" Marques, li monges {inoines) de Clunhic, 
Veuilh que fasson de vos capdel, 

siatz abbas de Cystilh, 

Pus le cor avetz tan mendic {pauvre) 

Que mais {mieux) amatz dos buous et un araire, 

A Montferiat qu'alors estr' emperuieur." 

" Marquis, the monks of Cluny, 

1 wish that they may make of you their captain, 
Or that you may be abbot of Citeaux, 

Since you have a heart so base 

As to prefer two oxen and a plough 

At Montfernat, than to be emperor elsewhere. " 

One of the most formidable amongst these fighting 
troubadours was Bertram de Born,"*a Provengal 
nobleman, who spent his life in warring against his 
neighbours, destroying their castles, plundering their 
domains, and then slandering them in his sirventes. 
Dante has given him a place of honour in his 
" Inferno," where- he represents him (canto xxviii.) 
carrying his head in his hands — 

" And so that thou may carry news of me, 
Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same 
Who gave to the young king (Richard of England) the evil comfort." 

Bertram de Born called severely to task Philip 
Augustus and Richard Cceur-de-Lion, the latter of 
whom he ironically nick- named j/^<^ and nay ^ in order 
to taunt him for his irresolution. He urged them both 



ROBERT WAGE, 43 

to go to the Holy Land ; then when the moment came 
for starting, he, for his own part, remained at home, 
and set his conscience at ease by composing a sirvente 
against himself Thus it is that in the case of France 
as well as of other countries, the popular literature of 
the day throws almost as much light upon the politi- 
cal state of the country as professed chronicles and 
histories ; but besides the fabliaux, the sirventes, 
the tensons, and the pastourelles of the troubadours 
and trotiveres, there are several poetical compositions 
which, under the name of roinans, are nothing more 
or less than historical compositions, possessing a cer- 
tain amount of authenticity, and compiled from Latin 
originals. Thus we may name the "Roman de Rou " 
and the "Roman de Brut," by Robert Wace (1162- 
1182), of whom a distinguished modern historian, 
Mr. Freeman, has said, "The name of Wace I can 
never utter without thankfulness, as that of one who 
has preserved to us the most minute and, as I fully 
believe, next to the contemporary sketch-work, the 
most trustworthy narrative of the central scene of my 
history." Respecting the word roman itself, we must 
be careful to observe that it had by no means in the 
Middle Ages the signification applied to it by modern 
usage. It denoted then a narrative containing a 
greater or smaller proportion of real fact, and re- 
cording the deeds of historical characters. We shall 
say nothing about the " Roman de Brut," which refers 
to the history of England ; but the " Roman de Rou" 
is strictly and closely connected with France, and 
deserves a mention here. The following lines fix 
the date of its composition — - 



44 ^' ROMAN DE ROU.'' 

" Mil et cent et soixante ans eut de temps et d'espace 
Puis que Diex en la Vierge descendi par sa grace : . 
Quand un Clerc de Caen, qui et nom Maistre Wace, 
S'entremist de I'istoire de Rou et de sa race." 

*' One thousand one hundred and sixty years had elapsed, 
Since God, by His grace, came into the Virgin, 
When a Clerk of Caen, by name Wace, - 
Wrote the history of Rollo, and of his race." 

The poem we are now describing consists of seven- 
teen thousand Hnes ; the first part of it gives the 
biography of the early Dukes of Normandy ; Rollo 
(Rou, hence the title of the work), William Longue- 
Epee, and Richard I. ; it is the least valuable portion, 
from the historical point of view ; the second division, 
on the contrary, based upon the chronicle of a cer- 
tain William of Jumieges, is extremely precious for 
the information it contains. The Benedictine scholars, 
Montfaucon and Lancelot, used it as a kind of com- 
mentary on the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry, which 
gives, as all readers know, a pictorial view of the 
Battle of Hastings, and the events which immediately 
preceded it The entire " Roman de Rou " takes 
us as far as the reign of Henry I. (iio6), and Robert 
Wace was rewarded by the King of England with 
a canonry in the church of Bayeux. The annalist 
found a somewhat formidable rival in Benoit de 
Sainte Maure, who, by the express command of 
Henry H., wrote a history of the Dukes of Nor- 
mandy, beginning with the invasions of the Northmen 
under Hastings, and ending with the reign of William 
the Conqueror. This chronicle, extending to twenty- 
three thousand lines, is of second-rate historical merit. 

The Crusades had their historians, as we may well 



RICHARD THE PILGRIM. 45 

suppose, the principal being Tudebod, Robert the 
Monk, and especially William of Tyre. Out of the 
materials supplied by these Latin chroniclers, a cer- 
tain trouvere named Richard the Pilgrim, composed a 
poem entitled " La Chanson d'Antioche," which was 
revised and almost re-written during the thirteenth 
century by Graindor, a native of Douai. 

Richard the Pilgrim accompanied Godefroi de 
Bouillon to Palestine ; he is supposed to have been 
one of the retainers of the Count of Flanders, and he 
appears to have died before the capture of Jerusalem. 
The work which has immoralized his name is of equal 
value if we consider it as a specimen of literary com- 
position and a faithful record of the events which 
marked the first Crusade. " Every page of his narra- 
tive bears evidence to the fact that he was an eye-wit- 
ness of the incidents he relates, even in the most indif- 
ferent and casual circumstances. Talking, for instance, 
of three knights who refused to do their duty, he says : 
' I know well who they are, but I shall not name 
them.' Thoroughly conscientious, Richard the Pilgrim 
describes faithfully all the episodes of the Crusade^ 
and analyses with much impartiality the characters of 
the various le^ders, the motives of their actions, and 
the feelings by which they were moved. Thus Bohe- 
mond is represented more than once as trembling, and 
needing to be reminded of his duty. The Duke of 
Normandy appears, exactly as the local historian 
describes him, to have been, brave, but light-hearted, 
impetuous, easily put out of temper, and allowing 
himself too often to be prejudiced. A native of Nor- 
thern France, our trouvere very naturally dwells more 



46 PHILIP I, 

especially upon the heroism of his compatriotes. The 
warriors of Flanders, Artois, and Picardy are those in 
whom he feels chiefly interested." ^ We shall have, 
later on, to dwell in greater detail upon the real 
literary historians of the Crusades ; but it would have 
been unfair to leave out in this chapter the early 
chroniclers of these important events. 

France was gradually waking up from the kind of 
moral slumber which had weighed over it for upwards 
of four centuries ; the whole nation, bursting through 
its frontiers, had rushed off to Jerusalem, to Italy, to 
Germany, to England ; the spirit of adventure and of 
conquest had taken possession of every heart, and 
yet the indolent king, Philip I., seemed to share 
nothing of the enthusiasm and the energy so universal 
around him. Steeped in luxury and sensuality, he 
heeded little the progress of feudalism, the gradual 
destruction of the royal power, the sufferings of the 
lower classes, and the condition of the Church. Was 
that state of reckless self-indulgence and neglect of duty 
to last } No ! Philip, indeed, satisfied himself with 
spending in tardy exercises of penance the last years 
of his reign ; he died in i io8 in Melun, after a reign of 
more than forty-seven years ; but his 3on, Louis VI. 
was destined to retrieve by his energy and his activity 
the faults of half a century, and to strike the first blow 
at the power of the aristocracy. 

^ Masson, " Mediaeval Chronicles of France." 



III. 



LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VIL — THE COMMUNAL MOVE- 
MENT. — SCHOLASTICISM. 

(1IO8-I180.) 

When Louis VI. ascended the throne the royal 
power was very much diminished, if we compare it to 
what it had been in the time of Hugues Capet. The 




SEAL OF LOUIS VT. 



countships of Paris, Sens, Orleans, and Melun consti- 
tuted the whole of the royal domains ; but even within 
these comparatively small limits the movements of 



48 LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII. 

the king were by no means free. For instance, be- 
tween Paris and Etampes stood the fortress of the 
lord of Montlhery ; between Paris and Melun the 
Count of Corbeil exercised almost absolute authority, 
and even at one time hoped to be at the head of a 
fourth dynasty ; between Paris and Or eans the frown- 
ing walls of Puiset were a constant source of anxiety 
to the Crown, and it required a three years' war to 
reduce it to submission. In whatever direction the 
eye might turn, it met the domains of feudal lords, 
whose power and influence equalled, in every respect, 
that of the king, and who, paying no attention to the 
royal safe-conducts, plundered the pilgrims, levied 
illegal and exorbitant fines upon travelling mer- 
chants, and acted in every respect as the most un- 
scrupulous highwaymen. The king was thus, if we 
may so say, hemmed in on all sides by that terrible 
and compact organization of feudalism which, having 
long since cast aside the ideal from which it originated, 
now only represented the principle of brute force 
against that of justice, order, and national unity. 

The time had come for a revolution to take place ; 
iniquity could not prevail for ever, and in the move- 
ment we are about to describe, the Crown and the 
lower classes acted as allies to each other. The prin- 
ciple of association was at the bottom of the feudal 
system ; it formed likewise the starting-point of the re- 
volution which ultimately destroyed that system. If 
we trace back to its beginnings the history of indus- 
try, trade, and commerce, we find guilds and corpo- 
rations rising everywhere, and imparting stability and 
the elements of success to professions which could 



THE COMMUNAL MOVEMENT. 49 

have produced nothing if left to isolated action and 
individual effort. In like manner the old institution 
of serfdom having gradually disappeared, and the 
labourers and vilains having obtained the right of 
inheriting the land, or portion of the land, which they 
formerly tilled for their masters, associations of families 
were formed, hence the organization of parishes, and 
their grouping together for purposes of mutual pro- 
tection. In the South of PVance, where traces of the 
old municipal institutions of the Romans were even 
then to be found, a still more decisive element of anti- 
feudalism existed, and speedily manifested itself. 

The communal movement broke out almost simul- 
taneously in various parts of the country ; Le Mans 
(1066), Cambrai (1076;, were followed by Noyon, 
Beauvais, Saint Ouentin, Laon, Amiens and Soissons. 
The following extracts from the charters of a Beauvais 
commune, will give a sufficient idea of all the others : 

" All the men residing within the walls of the city 
and its suburbs, to whatever lord they may belong, the 
land which they occupy, shall swear the commune. 
Within the whole enclosure of the town, each one 
shall assist his neighbours loyally and according to 
his ability, 

" The peers of the com'^nu7ie shall swear to favour 
no one for friendship's sake, to injure no one on the 
ground of private enmity ; they shall in every case 
give, according to their power, an equitable decision. 
All others shall swear to obey the decisions of the 
peers, and to assist in seeing that they are carried out. 

"Whenever any man has done injury to a person 
who has sworn the comm2ine, on a complaint of the 




CATHEDRAL OF NOYOiN. 



COMMUNE OF BEAUVAIS. 51 

same being made, the peers of the commune shall 
punish the delinquent, either in his person or in his 
goods, deliberation having been held on the subject. 

"If the culprit takes refuge in some castle, the 
peers of the commune shall refer to the lord of the 
castle or his representative, and if, according to their 
opinion, satisfaction is done to them against the 
enemy of the commu7ie, it will be enough ; but if the 
lord refuses satisfaction, they shall do justice to them- 
selves on the lord's property or on his retainers. 

" If some foreign merchant comes to Beauvais for 
trading purposes, and if any one does wrong or injury 
to him within the municipal limits {banlieue), if a com- 
plaint is entered before the peers, and if the merchant 
can discover the malefactor in the town, the peers 
shall punish him, unless the merchant should be an 
enemy of the commune. 

"No member of the commune shall give or lend 
his money to the enemies of the commune so long as 
war exists between them, for if he does so he has 
perjured himself ; and if any man stands convicted 
of having lent or trusted any thing to them, he shall 
be punished according to the decision of the peers. 

" If it happens that the whole commune marches out 
of the town against its enemies, no one shall hold 
parley with the enemies, except by the leave of the 
peers. 

"If any peer of the commuyie, having trusted his 
money to a resident of the town, that resident takes 
refuge in some castle, the lord of that castle, on com- 
plaint having been made to him, shall either return 
the money or drive the debtor out of his castle ; but 



52 LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII. 

should he do neither of these things, justice shall be 
taken against the men of that castle at the discretion 
of the peers." 

It is needless to observe that the comuninal move- 
ment was a source of great sorrow and irritation to 
the nobles both clerical and secular. " Coiiwmjte" 
says Guibert of Nogent (twelfth century), " is a new 
and detestable name. This is what is meant by'it — 
Persons now only pay once a year to their lords what 
they owe them. If they commit some crimes, they 
have merely to submit to a fine legally fixed." 

It is only fair to say that not a few amongst the 
prelates, understanding the real nature and the 
beneficial character of the communal movement, gave 
to it the sanction of their name and their high 
ecclesiastical position. Such was Baudri de Sarchain- 
ville, Bishop of Noyon (1098), and it is interesting 
to read the document by which he established (1108) 
the comimtne in the chief town of his diocese. 

" Baudri, by the grace of God Bishop of Noyon 
to all those who do persevere and go on in the faith. 

" Most dear brethren, we learn by the example and 
words of the holy Fathers that all good things ought 
to be committed to writing, for fear lest hereafter they 
come to be forgotten. Know then all Christians present 
and to come, that I have formed at Noyon a com- 
mune, constituted by the counsel and in an assembly 
of clergy, knights, and burghers ; that I have con- 
firmed it by oath, by pontifical authority, and by 
the bond of anathema, and that I have prevailed 
upon our lord King Louis to grant this commune and 
corroborate it with the king's seal. This establish- 



54 LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII, 

ment formed by me, sworn to by a great number of 
persons, and granted by the king, let none be so 
bold as to destroy or alter. I give warning thereof, 
on behalf of God and myself, and I forbid it in the 
name of pontifical authority. Whoever shall trans- 
gress or violate the present law be subjected to ex- 
communication ; and whosoever, on the contrary, 
shall faithfully keep it, be preserved for ever amongst 
those who dwell in the house of the Lord." 

The communal revolution, like most popular move- 
ments, was unfortunately stained in several places 
with deeds of violence, and the history of the com- 
nmne of Laon is unquestionably one of the most 
dramatic episodes in the whole development of the 
Middle Ages. Gaudri, bishop of that town, had, 
on condition of a sum of money, allowed the in- 
habitants the permission of instituting an elective 
magistracy on the pattern of that of Noyon (1109). 
Three years later, repenting of the concessions he 
had made, he persuaded the king, whom he had 
invited to spend the Easter festivities at Laon (11 12), 
to cancel the communal charter, promising him in 
return a sum of 700 silver livres. The news of this 
piece of treachery was soon spread abroad, and not- 
withstanding the protection given to Gaudri by a 
powerful body of knights, the episcopal palace was 
set on fire and the unfortunate bishop put to death. 

It was the evident interest of the King of France 
to encourage and favour the communal movement ; 
he thus secured for himself powerful allies against 
the barons who scorned his authority, and in his 
endeavours to restore order throughout his dominions 



FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 55 

he was assisted in the most efficient manner by the 
parish militias and the citizens of the various towns ; 
whereas the knights and men-at-arms either forsook 
him entirely or gave him very little assistance in his 
efforts to restore peace and order throughout the 
kingdom, he found, on the contrary, the greatest 
assistance in the armed bands raised by the Church 
and the towns. We must add, to tell the whole 
truth, that Louis VI. so eager to favour the com- 
munal movement in the domains of the barons, did 
not tolerate a single one in his own ; he wanted to 
be absolute master at home till the time when he 
might become master also over his turbulent vassals. 
The relations between England and France were 
always those of two deadly enemies. With the view 
of checking the power of his rival, Louis VL took up 
the cause of William Cliton, son of Robert, Duke of 
Normandy, who, defeated by his brother Plenry at 
the battle of Tinchebrai (1106), had been kept as a 
prisoner in Cardiff Castle. This scheme would have 
materially strengthened the position of the King of 
France ; unfortunately, the tide of war turned against 
Louis VL, who experienced a defeat at Brenneville 
(1119). We must remember at the same time that 
the English monarch was vassal of Louis as Duke of 
Normandy, and therefore he dare not push on the 
war to its last extremities. A series of events, how- 
ever, contributed to favour the progress of the power 
of England in France. The terrible episode of the 
B/a/ic/ie-ne/\e(t Henry with one child only, Mathilda; 
he married her to Geoffrey Plantagenet, eldest son of 
Foulques V., Count of Anjou, and thus the support 



56 LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII. 

which Louis had hitherto found in the Angevin 
princes against Normandy was henceforth lost. Later 
on the marriage of Mathilda's son with Eleanora of 
Guienne extended the power of England as far as 
the Pyrenees. 

The murder of Charles the Good, Count of Flan- 
ders, by the rebellious serfs and citizens of Ghent, 
furnished Louis VL with another occasion of ex- 
ercising his rights as a suzerain lord, and of trying 
to extend his authority. Accompanied by William 
Cliton, to whom he promised the Countship of Flan- 
ders, he invaded the land, and obtained at first some 
slight success ; but the cities of Furnes, Lille, Ghent, 
and Alost rose against the invaders and called to the 
supreme power Thierry of Elsass. Cliton died in 1128 
of a wound he had received before Alost. 

The firm resolution entertained by the King of 
France of re-establishing order in his dominions was 
felt even south of the Loire, where the Count of 
Auvergne and the Duke of Aquitaine learnt at 
their own cost that deeds of violence would no 
longer be tolerated. Amongst the king's last acts 
was a signal and energetic measure in the same direc- 
tion. One cf the most unprincipled and savage 
banditti-lords of the day, Thomas de Marie, who had 
played an important part in the rising at Laon, was 
carrying on a system of brigandage on a thoroughly 
extensive scale. He had locked up in the dungeon 
of his castle a company of innocent traders, stripped 
of their goods and their money by his men on the 
high roads, notwithstanding the royal safe-conduct, 
and he declined to let them depart unless they paid 



FRANCE AND THE PAPACY. 57 

him a considerable ransom. He had as his motto the 
proud couplet : 

" Je ne suis roy ne comie aussy, 
Je suis le Sire de Coucy, " 

and he fancied himself in safety behind the walls of 
his castle of Coucy, one of the strongest baronial re- 
sidences north of the Seine. The king, nevertheless, 
marched against him at the head of his troops, and 
Thomas de Marie, who had sallied forth with the 
intention of laying an ambush, was wounded, made a 
prisoner, and taken to Laon, where he died. 

Louis VI. was incidentally led to perform a part in 
the quarrel between the Papacy and the Empire, for 
three popes, Gelasius II., Calixtus II., and Innocent 
II., sought a refuge in France against the Imperial 
forces. In the year 1130 the king summoned at 
Etampes a council which, on the proposition of the 
celebrated Saint Bernard, declared Innocent II. to be 
the rightful successor of Saint Peter. Twelve months 
afterwards another council assembled at Reims, was 
attended by thirteen archbishops and two hundred 
and sixty-three bishops. Louis VI. appeared in per- 
son, and Innocent II. availed himself of the oppor- 
tunity of crowning the monarch's son, Louis, ten 
years old. Louis VI. died of an attack of dysentery 
on the 1st of August, 1137. He had been nicknamed 
/e gros (the fat) on account of his corpulency. 

The clever and enlightened course of policy 
adopted by Louis VI. was carried on by his son, but 
it led, in one of its applications, to an event which the 
new king had scarcely anticipated. The Pope had 
named to the archbishopric of Bourges his own 



58 LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII. 

nephew, regardless of the right of presentation which 
belonged to the Crown. Louis compelled the new 
prelate to vacate the see, whereupon the Count of 
Champagne offered a refuge to the disappointed eccle- 
siastic. The king had already some motives of 
complaint against the count. He resolved, therefore, 
upon punishing him, entered his domain, and burnt 
down the small town of Vitry ; thirteen hundred 
persons who had taken refuge in the church perished. 
So wholesale a destruction weighed upon the king's 
existence ; seized by remorse, he organized a Crusade, 
and found an apology and justification of his design 
in the state of affairs in the Holy Land. The Sultan 
of Aleppo had taken- Edessa, and driven the Chris- 
tians from one of their most important possessions. 
Would the kingdom of Jerusalem itself be safe ? and 
was it not to be feared that the infidels, encouraged 
by their success, might in a very short time destroy a 
work which had cost so much blood and so much 
money ? Pressing appeals were made to all the 
princes of Western Europe, and Saint Bernard 
became the apostle of the second Crusade (1144). 
We cannot dwell here upon the life and character of 
that truly remarkable man ; sufficient to say that he 
was one of the most distinguished representatives of 
the mediaeval clergy, and that, by his learning no less 
than by his earnest piety, he fully deserved the title 
of *' The Last Father of the Church," which some 
historians have bestowed upon him. A monk, of the 
Order of Citeaux, famed for the strictness of its 
discipline, he had himself founded in 1 1 1 5 an establish- 
ment — an off-shoot of the original monastery at a 



SECOND CRUSADE. 59 

place called " The Valley of Wormwood," so desig- 
nated either from the fact that the soil abounded with 
that plant, or because the locality was infested with 
robbers. Subsequently to the foundation of the new 
monastery the valley assumed the more propitious 
name of Clairvaux (Lat. clara vallis). Bernard was 
abbot at the time of the preaching of the Crusade; 
he placed himself at the head of the movement with 
his wonted energy, but a great change had taken 
place in public feeling, and instead of the spontaneous 
elan which seized all classes of society in the days of 
Peter the Hermit, it was necessary to levy a kind of 
Crusade tax throughout the kingdom, independently 
of rank and condition. Riots followed, and the king 
started for his expedition, says a chronicler, .in the 
midst of curses and* imprecations. The second 
Crusade was nothing else but a series of failures ; the 
want of discipline of the soldiers and the stupidity of 
the leaders brought about a first disaster. The only 
anxiety which possessed the King of France was to 
reach Jerusalem and to pray at the Holy Sepulchre. 
This he contrived to do, and then the Crusaders, 
deeming that it would be disgraceful for them to leave 
Palestine without accomplishing at least one feat of 
arms, determined upon attacking Damascus. Here, 
again, their own imprudence led to a discomfiture. 
Who should be prince of Damascus if the town zvas 
taken ? The Count of Flanders, said some ; this 
selection met with a great deal of opposition, but, as 
the siege had to be raised, it did not so much signify, 
and a very small number of the Crusaders returned to 
Europe to tell the tale of the expedition. 



6o 



LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII. 



Saint Bernard's reputation suffered considerably 
from this untoward episode. " He had confidently 
predicted its success, and was even said to have 
wrought miracles in attestation of his mission. The 
complaints against him were loud, bitter, and uni- 
versal ; and he himself acknowledged his confusion at 
this inexplicable visitation of Divine Providence. He 
attributed it to the scandalous vices of the Crusaders, 
comparing them to the Jews of old, to whom God's 




FIGURE OF SUGER IN CHITRCH WINDOW, 



prophet had solemnly promised the enjoyment of the 
Land of Canaan, but who were nevertheless ' over- 
thrown in the wilderness' on account of their sins and 
unbelief" Saint Bernard died in 1 1 53, and was 
canonized by Pope Alexander 111. in 1174. 

In contrast with the first Abbot of Clairvaux 
stands Suger, the great statesman, " the Father of his 
country," as his grateful contemporaries loved to call 
him. Born of poor parents in the neighbourhood of 



SUGER. 6l 

Saint Omer, Suger was indebted for his early training 
to the monks of the abbey of Saint Denis, who re- 
ceived him in their midst, and soon discovered his 
ability and his high moral qualities. Louis VI., his 
fellow-student at Saint Denis, conceived for him a 
friendship which Louis VI L continued, and having 
been elected abbot during his absence at Rome, he 
rose to be invested with the highest powers in the 
state. Named regent whilst the king was engaged in 
the Crusade, he governed prudently and discreetly, 
maintained order, and displayed the greatest talent as 
a financier. He had alwa}'s been opposed to the 
Crusade, and urged upon the king the duty of " not 
abandoning his flock to the rapacity of the wolves." 

On his return to France, Louis VII. repudiated his 
wife Eleanor for alleged misconduct. This step, jus- 
tified, no doubt, from the point of view of morality, 
was a political mistake, because the ex-queen, heiress, 
as we have seen, of the duchy of Guienne, transferred 
her vast domain to Henry Plantagenet, Count of 
Anjou, Duke of Normandy, and heir-presumptive to 
the crown of England (1152). The power of this 
country, thus immensely increased, was still more so 
when, two years later, Henry obtained for his sons 
the hand of the Count of Brittany's only daughter. 
Thus irritated by the rapid and constantly-increasing 
power of his rival, Louis VII. avenged himself by en- 
couraging the rebellious conduct of Henry's four sons. 
The murder of Thomas a Becket (1170) is another 
incident which helped him in his designs against 
England. Having insisted with the Pope that the 
blood of the archbishop should be avenged, he ob- 



62 LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII. 

tained satisfaction. With the view of escaping from 
a sentence of excommunication, Henry submitted to 
all the humiliations which were imposed upon him, 
and spent the last years of his reign in wars against 
his own sons, his subjects, and the King of France. 

The tragic death of Thomas a Becket belongs im- 
mediately and directly to the history of England ; 
but it affected, more or less, the whole of Christen- 
dom, and therefore we are not astonished at finding it 
described by a French writer : 

" Since now and at so late a time (in the history of 
the world) a new martyr is given to you, Garnier the 
Clerk, a native of Pont Saint Maxence, thinks it right 
to tell you the date of this event : it took place full 
eleven hundred and seventy years after the incarna- 
tion." The chronicle we are now alluding to, written 
in Alexandrine verses, is founded upon the well-known 
" Historia Ouadripartita," compiled under the direc- 
tion of Pope Gregory XL from materials supplied by 
John of Salisbury, Herbert of Bosham, William of 
Canterbury, and Alan, Abbot of Tewkesbury. The 
poem is remarkably accurate in point of historical 
detail ; Garnier has spared neither time nor trouble in 
collecting information from the most trustworthy 
quarters : 

" I have spent at least four years in making and 
perfecting it (the poem), retrenching, adding, without 
taking any account of my trouble." Further on, he 
tells us " he went to Canterbury for the purpose of 
getting the truth from the friends of Saint Thomas, and 
those who had served him ever since he was a child." 

Impartiality is his chief object : " Truth and inte- 



GUILD OF PARIS MERCHANTS. 63 

grityyoii may expect here, for I would not depart from 
the truth for any damages or death I might endure." 

The views of Garnier respecting the murder of 
Thomas a Becket are those which might be antici- 
pated from a Churchman and a Frenchman ; his 
opinion is that of the clergy during the twelfth cen- 
tury "The prelates," he remarks, "are the ser- 
vants of God ; and princes, therefore, ought to cherish 
them ; they are above kings, who should bend under 
them." 

The communal movement continued during the 
reign of Louis VII. His father had granted or con- 
firmed eight charters ; his own name appears on 
twenty-five such documents ; the population of the 
towns increased, barren tracts of land were cultivated, 
forests disappeared, and substantial encouragement 
was given to trade and industry. Louis VII. con- 
firmed the privileges of the Hmise or guild of Paris 
merchants, which under the collective name of 
marcJiands de Veau de Paris, had succeeded to the 
corporation of the naiitcE Parisienses. This company 
or association, the most powerful of all those then 
existing, enjoyed the monopoly of carrying goods 
from the bridge of Le Pecq, near Saint Germain on 
Laye, to the higher part of the river. They levied 
a toll on all provisions brought into Paris ; their 
armorial device was a ship, which subsequently 
became that of the metropolis, with the motto Fluctuat 
nee mergitiir. The foundation stone of the Cathedral 
of Notre Dame was laid in 1168 by Pope Alexander 
III. We have already said that Louis VII. caused his 
son and heir to be consecrated during his own life- 



64 LOUIS VI. — LOUIS VII. 

time ; he further directed that the ceremony should 
always take place at Paris. 

We cannot close our account of the reign of Louis 
Yll. without giving a sketch, if ever so slight, of the 
intellectual movement which was going on in France, 
during the administration of the first Capetian monarchs. 

Under the name of Schola Palatii Charlemagne 
had established in connection with every cathedral 
church (circular of 789), schools for the elementary 
teaching of children, and, besides, seminaries where 
the higher branches of the sciences were studied, under 
the supervision of competent teachers. Tours, Metz, 
Fontenelle in Normandy, Ferrieres near Montargis, 
and Aniane in Languedoc, thus became centres of 
intellectual progress : the curriculum of learning was 
called the trivium and the quadrivium, and embraced 
the seven liberal sciences, as enumerated in the follow- 
ing distich : 

" Gramm{aticd) loquitur ; Dia[lectica) vera docet ; Rhcf{onca) verba 

colorat ; 
i\Iiis[ica) canit ; Ar{itJii)ietica) numeral; Geo{metria) ponderat; 

As{tronomia) colii astra." 

There was of course a school attached to the 
metropolitan church of Paris, and thus it happened 
that the foundation of the University of Paris came 
to be ascribed to Charlemagne, although the real 
founder of it, as a matter of fact, was Philip Augustus. 
A vestige of the old tradition is still preserved in the 
circumstance that the annual festival of the University 
of France takes place on the day of Saint Charlemagne. 
The University of Paris was really an association of 
guilds of schools, on the pattern of the other corpora- 



UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. 65 

tions, and its headquarters were on the south bank of 
the Seine, at and near the Montagne Sainte Genevieve, 
still regarded as the centre of what is called /e quartier 
Latin. The importance of the various schools belong- 
ing to the University of Paris may be gathered from 
merely naming a few of the distinguished men who 
there taught and were there educated. Thus Ulger, 
Bishop of Angers, Alberic de Reims, Archbishop of 
Bourges, Gauthier de Mortagne, Bishop of Laon, 
Michel de Corbeil, Dean of Saint Denis, who, after 
having refused the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, was 
consecrated Archbishop of Sens. Some of the most 
distinguished members of the University of Paris 
were foreigners, and to mention only a {^^m English- 
men out of a list which might easily be extended, 
we shall quote almost at random, Adam de Parvo 
Ponte^ Bishop of Saint Asaph, Robert de Bethune, 
Bishop of Hereford, Cardinal Robert Pulleyn, and 
finally Nicolas Breakspeare, who was elected to the 
Papacy under the name of Adrian IV. 

Of all the schools comprising the University of 
Paris during the Middle Ages, that of Saint Victor 
has remained the most illustrious ; it was founded by 
Guillaume de Champeaux, in 1108. "Whilst it 
endeavoured," says Canon Robertson, " to reconcile 
the scholastic method of inquiry with practical piety, 
it was especially opposed to the dialectical subtleties 
which were now in fashion, and was itself inclined to 
mysticism. The most famous teachers of this school 
were Hugues — a Saxon, according to some writers, 
while others suppose him a native of Ypres — who 
died in 1141 ; Richard, a Scotchman, who died in 



66 LOUIS VI. 

1170; and Gauthier, who, in 1174, wrote against 'the 
four Labyrinths of Gaul,' under which names he 
denounced Abelard, Gilbert de la Porree, Peter 
Lombard, and his disciple, Peter de Poitiers." ^ 

Hincmar, Alcuin, Eginhard, and Scot Erigena, to 
name only these, had given to the Carlovingian 
dynasty a kind of intellectual character, and the 
great theological disputes of the mediaeval epoch were 
anticipated by the sharp controversy, in which were 
engaged, on the one side, the Monk Gotteschalck, and, 
on the other, Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Mentz. 
Theology and philosophy at that time were identical 
expressions, and arguments on points of doctrine 
often meant nothing less than efforts to assert the 
right of intellectual freedom against the claims of 
authority. Condemned by two councils for having 
stated that the doctrine of predestination is to be 
found in the writings of Saint Augustine, Gottes- 
chalck had refused to retract, and had been shut up 
for life by Hincmarin a cloister ; ScotErigena,Berenger, 
and Roscelin suffered persecution in various l^orms for 
the boldness of their ideas, and when the dispute 
between the Realists and the Nominalists broke out, 
the tide of theological bitterness was at its height. 

When we talk of universal ideas, we may suppose 
either that they are mere ideas, or real existences, 
just as real as, for instance, an individual horse, 
tree, or man. The latter view had been the one 
acknowledged as orthodox, and it had on its side 
the authorit}^ of Plato and of Saint Augustine ; 
the former was sanctioned by Aristotle. Roscelin, 

^ " History of the Christian Church," 



ABELARD. 67 

Canon of Compiegne, stood up on the side of 
Nominalism, and having boldly applied his tenets 
to an explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity 
he was accused of Tritheism, and compelled to 
retract. He had to leave France, and fled to England, 
where he further excited great dissatisfaction by 
maintaining that the sons of clergymen could not 
legally receive ordination. He then returned to France, 
found a kind and sympathetic friend in Yves de 
Chartres, was through his mediation reconciled to the 
Church, and appointed a canon of the church of Saint 
Martin at Tours. 

The philosopher, however, whose name has become 
the most illustrious in the history of the times, was 
Abelard, a pupil of Roscelin, and subsequently of 
Guillaume de Champeaux. The romantic story of 
his love with Heloise, has chiefly made his name 
known to the public, but he was equally distinguished 
as a theologian and a teacher. Born in 1079, ^^ ^ 
village near Nantes, he became extremely popular as 
soon as he began lecturing, and his excessive vanity 
led him into difficulties from which he never extricated 
himself. Saint Bernard, always on the watch against 
heretical doctrines, had not much trouble in discover- 
ing the dangerous propositions maintained by 
Abelard in his *' Introduction to Theology," and he 
brought forth against him the charge of sharing the 
errors of Nestorius, Pelagius, and Arius. The 
councils of Soissons (1121), Sens (i 140), condemned 
him, and the doctors assembled on the former of 
these occasions obliged him to burn with his own 
hands the dangerous treatise. Prohibited from teach- 



68 



LOUIS VI. 



ing, and ordered to be confined for life, Abelard 
repaired to the Abbey of Cluny, where he was most 
kindly received by Peter the Venerable. He there 
spent two years in study and devotional exercises, 
and having been removed to the priory of Saint 
Marcel, near Chalon-sur Saone, he died there in the 
sixty-third year of his age, April 21, 1142. 

We must not suppose that the endless discussion 
carried on by the schoolmen of the Middle Ages 
derive their importance fi'cm the fact that they cleared 
a few theological difficulties, about which no one 
really cared. The great, the ever-momentous 
question at issue then was liberty of tJiought, and the 
right of examining and dissenting from, the tenets 
propounded by the Church of Rome. In this long 
quarrel, the Realists represented the principle of 
freedom, and the Nowiftalists that of submission. 




IV. 



PHILIP AUGUSTUS— THE CRUSADES — THE ALBI- 

GENSES — LOUIS Vlil. 

(ll 80-1 226.) 

Louis VII, whose reig-n we have just been de- 
scribing, was the eldest of six sons : three had taken 
orders ; Robert was the head of the house of Dreux 
and Pierre founded that of Courtenay, which still 
exists in England Philip II., surnamed Augustus 
because he was born in the month of August (1165), 
ascended the throne at the early age of fifteen. His 
reign marks an important epoch in the history of 
France ; it coincides with the beginning of a revolution 
which destroyed the feudal system and placed in the 
hands of the king all the powers of the country. The 
vigilance and energy of the new king baffled the 
activity of the barons who still attempted to rule 
independently of their liege lord. As a result of the 
wars he had to undertake, we must name the acqui- 
sition of the countships of Amiens, Valois, and Ver- 
mandois (1183J ; in 1191 he obtained by right of 
inheritance the important province of Artois, and 
thus the immediate domains of the Crown were 
extended as far as Flanders. He reduced to obedience 



70 PHILIP AUGUSTUS— THE CRUSADES. 

the Duke of Burgundy, the Lord of Beaujeu, and the 
Count of Chalons ; he persecuted the Jews (1182) ; 
with the help of the communal militia he stamped out 
an insurrection attempted by the Cottereaux — a band of 
robbers who infested the central provinces of France. 
The rivalry between France and England found 
fresh fuel in the events which marked the third Cru- 
sade (1190-1191). Jerusalem had fallen into the 
power of the infidels (1187). Since the accession of 
Godefroi de Bouillon, eight European kings, all French, 
had reigned in the Holy City, and the last, Guy de 
Lusignan, defeated at the battle of Tiberias, had now 
become the prisoner of Saladin. A vigorous effort was 
made throughout Christendom to improve a situation 
which had grown very serious ; the emperor, Frederick 
Barbarossa, took the initiative ; Richard Cceur de 
Lion followed, accompanied by Philip Augustus. The 
expedition arrived at Saint Jean d'Acre, which was 
retaken by the Crusaders. The " lion-hearted " soon 
made his personality felt in the most decided manner, 
and earned by his reckless courage, his determination, 
and his perseverance, a reputation which extended 
even to the Mohammedan population of the country. 
If we may beliex-e an Eastern historian, his fellow 
countrymen used to rebuke their startled horses by 
uttering his dreadful name. " Do you think," said 
they, '' that King Richard is on the track, that you 
stray so wildly from it ? " He directed from the first 
the chief operations of the siege, and acquired over his 
fellow Crusaders, over Philip especially, an ascendency 
which could not be but very galling to a man so 
impatient of control as the King of France. 



RICHARD CCEUR DE LION. 71 

" We laud and honour the courage and high achieve- 
ments of the King of England, but we feel aggrieved 
that he should, on all occasions, seize and maintain a 
precedence and superiority over us, which it becomes 
not independent princes to submit to. Much we might 
yield of our free-will to his bravery, his wealth, his 
zeal, and his power ; but he who snatches all as a 
matter of right, and leaves nothing to grant as a 
matter of courtesy and favour, degrades us from allies 
into retainers and vassals, and sullies, in the eyes of 
our soldiers and subjects, the lustre of our authority, 
which is no longer independently exercised." 

7'his speech of the Grand Master of the Templars, 
in Sir Walter Scott's "Talisman," exactly represents 
the feelings of Philip Augustus in his relations towards 
the King of England. Acre having once surrendered, 
he resolved upon leaving the Holy Land immediately, 
for the express purpose of destroying the power of 
Richard. Before starting, he renewed, indeed, the 
engagements which bound him to respect the terri- 
tories, the interests, and the rights of the English 
monarch ; but he tried during his stay at Rome to ob- 
tain from Pope Celestine III. a deed releasing him 
from this engagement. This being useless, he deter- 
mined upon releasing himself by force, and sought the 
alliance of Prince John, who had long been plotting 
to supplant his brother, and who consented to do 
homage to the King of France, not only for Normandy 
and the other English possessions on the Continent, 
but for England itself. In the meanwhile Richard 
contrived to escape from a captivity in which the 
Emperor of Germany had unjustly kept him (1194); 



72 PHILIP AUGUSTUS — THE CRUSADES. 

he arrived in Normandy at the head of a powerful 
army, and defeated the French at Frettival. As for 
John, whose baseness was only equalled by his cruelty, 
he sought to propitiate his brother by putting to the 
sword three hundred French soldiers whom he had 
invited to a banquet at Evreux. Pope Innocent, then 
interfering, obliged the rival monarchs to sign a five 
years' truce (January, 1199 . Two months afterwards 
Richard was killed before the castic of Chalus, in 
Limousin. 

John Lackland, now having become king, had as an 
enemy the prince whose alliance he had so recently 
sought, and who was only anxious for a pretext to 
renew hostilities. The murder of young Arthur, which 
occurred then (1204), seemed to justify the ambitious 
projects of Philip Augustus. He had made up his 
mind to vindicate the rights of John's nephew to the 
throne of England, on consideration of homage for the 
possessions of the English Crown in France ; he now 
summoned the murderer to appear in person before 
the court of the twelve peers (chief vassals of the 
Crown), and, having received a refusal, he marched 
into Normandy, took possession of the chief towns in 
the duchy, including Rouen, and, following his career 
of success, re-annexed Poitou, Anjou, and Touraine 
to the royal domains. Vainly did Pope Innocent III. 
endeavour to bind down the two monarchs by a peace. 

Not even so cowardly a man as John could submit 
to such humiliations, and he formed a league with the 
Emperor of Germany, Otho IV., the Counts of Flan- 
ders^and Boulogne, and all the princes of the Nether- 
lands. They were to invade P>ance by the northern 



BATTLE OF BO U VINES, 73 

frontier, whilst he, with an English army, attacked it 
by the south-west. Louis, the eldest son of the king, 
marched into Poitou against John, whilst Philip, with 
a large body of knights and the communal militia, 
took the road to the north. He met the enemy at 
the bridge of Bouvines, between Lille and Tournai 
(July 27, 1 2 14). The Flemings felt so confident of 
victory that they had already divided the country be- 
tween themselves. Philip Augustus ordered a mass 
to be celebrated ; he then commanded bread and 
wine to be brought, and having had some slices 
{soiipes, Slips, sops) cut, he ate one, and addressing the 
men who were near him, he said, " I request all my 
good friends to eat together with me in remembrance 
of the twelve apostles who ate and drank together 
with our Lord ; and if there shall be any one of you 
who entertains thoughts of evil or of treachery, let 
him not draw near." Then came forward my Lord 
Enguerrand de Coucy and took the first sop ; Count 
Gauthier de Saint Pol took the second, and said to the 
king, " Sire, it will be seen to-day whether I am a 
traitor!" This he said because the king suspected 
him on account of certain bad reports. The Count 
of Sancerre took the ihird sop, and then the other 
barons, and the.crowd was so great that all could not 
reach the table {buffet) on which the sops were placed. 
This seeing, the king was very joyous, and he ex- 
claimed to the barons : " My lords, you are all my 
men, and I am your king, w^hatever I may be, and I 
have loved you all very much. . . . Therefore, I be- 
seech you, maintain on this day my honour and yours, 
and if you see that the crown is better on the head of 



74 PHILIP AUGUSTUS — THE CRUSADES. 

one of you than on mine, I shall willingly part with 
it." When the barons heard him thus speak, they 
began to shed tears, saying : " Sire, thanks, for God's 
sake ! We will have no other king but you ! Now ride 
boldly against your enemies, and we are prepared to 
die with you ! " 

The two armies remained for some time at a short 
distance from each other without daring to begin the 
action, and the French were retiring by the bridge of 
Bouvines to march in the direction of Hainault, when 
the enemy, by attacking the rear, obliged them to turn 
round. 

" Philip," says his chaplain, Guillaume le Breton, 
who was present during the action, " was resting then 
under a tree, near a chapel, with his armour unfastened. 
At the first noise of the fight, he entered the chapel to 
make a short prayer, armed himself quickly, and 
jumped upon his charger with as much joy as if he 
was going to a wedding or a festival. Then shouting 
out, ' To arms ! warriors, to arms !' he rushed forwards? 
without waiting for his banner. A valiant man. Gallon 
de Montigni, carried on that day the oriflamme of 
Saint Denis, a standard of bright red silk. The bis- 
hop-elect of Senlis, Guerin, arranged the batailles in 
such a manner that the French had the sun at their 
back, whilst the enemy had it in their eyes. Three 
hundred burghers of Soissons, vassals of the Abbot 
of Saint Medard, and who fought on horseback, began 
the action at the right wing by charging audaciously 
the knights of Flanders. These hesitated for some 
time to try their courage against commoners. How- 
ever, the cry of ' Death to the French ! ' raised by one 



BATTLE OF BO U VINES. 75 

of them, animated them, and the Bourguignons, led 
by their duke, having reinforced the people of Soissons, 
the meUe became furious. Count Ferrand was fighting 
on that side of the army." 

" When the action began the communal militias were 
already beyond Bouvines ; they recrossed the bridge 
in all haste, ran in the direction of the royal standard, 
and came to place themselves in the centre, in front 
of the king and of his bataille. The German knights, 
in the midst of whom was the Emperor Otho, charged 
these brave men, and riding through them endeavoured 
to reach the King of France ; but the most renowned 
amongst Philip's men-at-arms threw themselves in 
front of them and stopped them. During this melee 
the German infantry passed behind the cavalry, and 
arrived at the place where stood Philip. They dragged 
him from his horse, and, when he was on the ground, 
they endeavoured to kill him. Montigni waved the 
oriflamme as if to ask for assistance. A few knights 
and the men of the communes ran up, delivered the 
king, and replaced him upon his horse ; he imme- 
diately rushed back into the thick of the fight. It 
was the emperor's turn to feel in danger of being 
taken. Guillaume de§ Barres, the bravest and the 
strongest man in the whole army, the happy adversary 
of Richard Cceur de Lion, whom he had twice over- 
come, already held Otho, and was striking him vio- 
lently, when a crowd of Germans rushed upon him. 
They killed his horse, but though dismounted, he ex- 
tricated himself, and with sword and dagger cleared 
the ground around him. Otho thus managed to 
escape." 



"J^ PHILIP AUGUSTUS — TITE CRUSADES. 

" On the right wing Ferrand, Count of Flanders, had 
fallen into the hands of the French ; at the centre, the 
emperor and the Germans were in full flight ; but, on 
the left, Renaud de Bourgogne and the English held 
their ground. They had driven before them the 
militias of Dreux, Perche, Ponthieu, and Vimeu. ' At 
this sight,' writes a chronicler, ' Philippe de Dreux, 
Bishop of Beauvais, was distressed, and as he happened 
to hold a club in his hand^ forgetting his episcopal 
dignity, he struck the leader of the English, knocked 
him down and many others with him, breaking limbs 
but shedding no blood. He recommended those who 
surrounded him to declare that this great slaughter 
was their work, for he feared lest he should be accused 
of having violated the canons and committed a deed 
unlawful for a bishop. The English were soon in 
full rout except Renaud, who had arranged a company 
of sergeants on foot in the shape of a double circle 
bristling with long spears. From the centre of this 
circle he rushed forth as from a fortress, taking refuge 
within it at times to take rest. At last, his horse 
being wounded, he fell and was made prisoner. Five 
other counts and twenty-five knights-bannerets had 
already been captured." 

The above description of the battle of Bouvines, 
translated from M. Duruy's " History of France," is 
given here in detail on account of the extreme im- 
portance belonging to the event. The immediate 
results, indeed, if we consider territorial aggrandise- 
ment, were null for the French king, but he had re- 
pelled a formidable invasion, defeated an emperor and 
a king, and proved to some of his ambitious vassals 



FOULQUES OF NEUILLY, 77 

that any sinister intention they might have against the 
crown would be both promptly and signally defeated. 
To quote M. Guizot, " The battle of Bouvines was not 
the victory of Philip Augustus alone over a coalition 
of foreign princes ; the victory was the work of king 
and people, barons, knights, burghers, and peasants of 
Ile-de-France, of Orleanais, of Picardy, of Normandy, 
of Champagne, and of Burgundy. And this union of 
different classes and of different populations in a 
sentiment, a contest, and a triumph shared in common, 
was a decisive step in the organization and unity of 
France. The victory of Bouvines marked the com- 
mencement of the time at which men might speak, and 
indeed did speak, by one single name of the Fixnch. 
The nation in France and the kingship in France on 
that day rose out and above the feudal system." We 
do not wonder, therefore, to find that the return of 
Philip Augustus to Paris had all the features of a 
triumphal march ; rejoicings were universal, and the 
enthusiasm of the people displayed itself in every 
possible manner. Crowds collected to see the Count 
of Flanders, so powerful lately, but now wounded and 
disabled, borne about in a litter where he was manacled 
and loaded with fetters. "There you are, Ferrand," 
they exclaimed, "bound and fettered ; you can no 
longer kick and lift your stick against your master ! " 
He remained for the space of thirteen years a prisoner 
at the Louvre (1227), a commemorative church called 
Vabbaye de la victoirey was built near Sen lis to cele- 
brate the event. 

Foulques, priest of Neuilly-sur-Marne, undertook at 
that time the missions which had previously been per- 



y8 PHILIP AUGUSTUS — THE CRUSADES. 

formed with such success by Peter the Hermit and 
with comparative failure by Saint Bernard. At the 
suggestion of Pope Innocent III. he preached a 
Crusade. Jerusalem was beginning to excite very little 
interest, and the princes of Western Europe were too 
much engrossed by their feuds at home to think of 
the Holy Land, the Saracens, and the empire founded 
by Godefroi de Bouillon. It is quite true that the elo- 
quence of the Abbot of Clairvaux had kindled the 
utmost enthusiasm at first in the breast of his hearers, 




SEAL OF ST. BERNARD. 

and the shouts of " Diex el volt ! Diex el volt ! " had 
re-echoed in answer to his appeals ; but, as we have 
seen above, the excitement proved very short-lived, 
and artificial means were absolutely necessary to 
render the Crusade possible. It was very much the 
same in the present case. However, the expedition 
having been resolved upon, the question of itinerary 
remained to be settled. The general opinion decided 
against an over-land journey, and a deputation was 
sent to hire ships from the Venetians, The sum asked 






"W 



-n — 5^ 



i2^^ A,.,^v^ / J 






j^^«. 




8o PHILIP AUGUSTUS — THE CRUSADES. 

by the Republic was 85,000 silver merks, besides half 
the conquests made by the Crusaders. So large a 
sum could not be paid down at once, so the Venetians 
granted a delay provided the invaders would help 
them to take possession of Zara in Dalmatia. Consent 
was given. Further, by the advice of their Italian 
friends, they determined to make Constantinople the 
basis of their operations, and having thus settled the 
preliminary difficulties, they started. 

It is interesting that the first French prose writer 
worthy of that name should have been the historian of 
the fourth Crusade ; we mean Geoffroi de Villehardouin, 
who took a part in it himself and related, so to say, his 
own experiences. Born about the year 1167, Ville- 
hardouin was a member of one of the most distin- 
guished families in Champagne, and had filled with 
distinction the important post of marshal of that pro- 
vince, when, in 1199, he was prevailed upon by Count 
Thibault to join the Crusade. One of his companions, 
Geoffroi de Joinville, had for his nephew the celebrated 
friend and biographer of Saint Louis. Villehardouin 
was one of those who went to negotiate with the 
Venetians about the conveyance of the troops to the 
Holy Land. After the taking of Constantinople he 
received as a reward for his services the Marquisate 
de Montferrat with the gift of a fief in Thessaly, and he 
died there about the year 12 13. The work in which 
Villehardouin gives us the account of the Crusade is 
entitled " La Conqueste de Constantinoble," and with 
all its shortcomings in the way of accuracy and histo- 
rical fidelity, it is a most interesting work. The events it 
describes are those comprised between 1198 and 1207. 



CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 8 1 

The Crusading Princes having resolved upon going 
to Constantinople, the young Prince Alexios offered 
to be their guide on condition that they should restore 
to the throne his father, Isaac Angelos, whose power 
had been usurped (1203). Villehardouin describes in 
a very picturesque manner the effect produced upon 
the Crusaders by the first view of Constantinople. 
"Those who had never seen it did not believe that 
there could be so rich a city in the whole world. When 
they beheld those lofty walls and rich towers by which 
it was surrounded, and those rich palaces and lofty 
churches of which there were so many that no one 
could believe it who had not seen them with his own 
eyes ; and when they saw the length and the breadth 
of the city, which was the sovereign of all other cities, 
know ye that there was not a man whose flesh did 
not tremble, nor was it great wonder if they w^ere 
moved, for never since the creation of the world was 
so high a deed undertaken by any nation." 

Constantinople was defended by an army of 60,000 
men, but they gave way most ignominiously, the city 
was taken by storm (July 18, 1203), and the old em- 
peror, released irom captivity, was reinstated upon his 
throne. This unfortunate monarch had made to the 
Cru=:aders promises which he could fulfil only by 
grinding down his subjects with taxes. A fresh revo- 
lution was the result. Alexios was strangled, and 
Murtzulph, who usurped the power, ordered the gates 
of the city to be closed against the Christians. Another 
siege was the result (March, 1204), disgraced on the 
part of the Crusaders by the most horrible excesses. 
The establishment of a Prankish empire at Constant!- 



82 PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 

nople prevented the expedition to the Holy Land. 
Baldwin IV., Count of Flanders, was elected Emperor ; 
the Marquis de Montferrat received the title of King of 
Macedon ; there were Dukes of Athens and of Naxos, 
Counts of Cephalonia, Lords of Thebes and of 
Corinth. The Venetians retained for themselves a 
whole district of Constantinople, together with all the 
seaports and islands belonging to the empire. But 
this new organization had no elements of stability ; it 
would have required a greater amount of military force 
than was available, and the collapse took place in 1261, 
when the Greeks recovered Constantinople. " For 
thirteen years the Emperor Baldwin bore about with 
him an empty title which won for him the commisera- 
tion or the contempt of thousands who could not be 
brought to stir hand or foot in his service. His pre- 
tensions were maintained by his son Philip, and 
through his grand-daughter Catherine passed to her 
husband, Charles de Valois, brother of Philip the 
Fair of France." ^ 

The next event we have to describe in connection 
with the reign of Philip Augustus is the one which 
illustrates in the saddest manner the spirit of intoler- 
ance which characterized the Middle Ages. We allude 
to the crusade against the Albigenses. We have said 
elsewhere that the river Loire separated as a broad 
line of demarcation, two forms of civilization essen- 
tially different from each other. In the north {pays 
de Langue d'oil) the Teutonic element prevailed ; 
manners were rough, commerce in a most rudimentary 
state, literature imperfect, luxury, comparatively un- 

^ Cox, " The Crusades." 



CRUSADE AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES. 83 

known, and peace a very rare exception. In the south 
(paj/s de Langue d'oc), on the other hand, hterature 
had reached a high state of perfection, commerce had 
introduced ease and luxury, and the administration of 
the towns gave all the conditions of peace and 
material prosperity. But an over-refined state of 
civilization often leads to a loose state of morality, and 
later on libertinism is almost as a rule associated 
with free thinking. Such was the case south of the 
Loire. Heresies and sects rapidly multiplied, the best 
known being that of the Albigenses, thus named 
because their headquarters were in the town of Albi. 
They held the philosophical doctrines of the Mani- 
chaians, that is to say, they admitted two Gods, 
identified respectively with the principles of good and 
evil, some of them believing further that the creator 
of evil had himself been created by the good deity, 
and had fallen from his first estate by rebellion. Be 
it as it may, Raymond V., Count of Toulouse, sent in 
1 177 a formal complaint against the heretics to the 
abbot and community of Citeaux ; and it is further 
supposed that he urged the Kings of France and 
England to agree upon certain strong measures for 
the suppression of the heterodox doctrines. Innocent 
III., on his part, was fully alive to the danger which 
threatened the Church, but his first efforts met with 
no success. In 1203, however, he appointed .two 
legates, of whom Pierre de Castelnau is the best 
known, for the exclusive purpose of putting down 
heresy in the province of Languedoc ; and these 
monks proceeded at once to the discharge of their 
task, powerfully assisted by a Spanish priest, Dominic 



84 PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 

de Guzman, belonging to the diocese of Osma. In 
the meanwhile the Count of Toulouse had died, and 
his successor Raymond VI. was suspected of favouring 
the Albigenses. Everything was done to frighten 
him into orthodoxy ; but even a sentence of excom- 
munication had no effect ; and finally a gentleman of 
his household murdered the legate, Pierre deCastelnau, 




SEAL OF SIMON DE MONTFORT. 



near Saint Gilles (January 15, 1208). This tragedy 
led to the preaching of a crusade, in which the Pope 
offered to those who would join it the advantages 
enjoyed by the faithful who went to defend the Holy 
Land. The war soon assumed the character of an 
international rather than a religious contest. Under 
the leadership of Simon de Montfort, the whole of 



HERETICS AND INFIDELS. 85 

Langued'oil invaded Languedoc, and the result was 
the destruction of southern civiHzation and of the £-ai 
savoir. The greatest ferocity marked all the incidents 
of the war : thus fifteen thousand persons were 
slaughtered at the siege of Beziers ; the powerful 
Counts of Toulouse, the Viscounts of Narbonne and 
Beziers were dispossessed, and the King of Arragon, 
who had come to their assistance, fell at the battle 
of Muret (1213). 

Simon de Montfort profited by the disaster which 
had thus visited the south, for the Papal legate gave 
over to him the domains of the Languedoc barons ; 
but he was killed under the walls of Toulouse ; and 
his son Amaury, unable to face the universal repro- 
bation of the conquered populations, offered his 
domains to the King of France. This proposition, 
declined at first, was finally accepted. 

It is interesting to find how the barbarity exercised 
against heretics and infidels is reflected in the popular 
literature of the time, and recognized as a matter of 
course, and as the distinctive mark of all really Chris- 
tian governments. Thus in the romance entitled 
" Floire et Blanceflor " we find a curious example of 
religious zeal carried on to painful extremities. 
Floire, the hero, son of a heathen prince, becomes a 
convert to Christianity, and no sooner is he received 
within the fold of the Church than he compells all his 
subjects to follow his example : 

" Qui le baptesme refusoit, 
Ne en Diu croire ne voloit, 
Floire les faisoit escorchier, 
Ardoir en fu ou destrenchier." 



86 PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 

" Those who refused baptism, 
And who would not beheve in God, 
Fl( ire caused them to be flayed alive, 
Burnt in the fire, or beheaded." 

The compulsory baptism of the Saxons by Charle- 
magne was a case which the trouvere might adduce, 
but the question still remains whether the stake and 
the sword have ever made real converts, and the 
history of the Albigenses is there to supply a negative 
answer. The only good result of the crusade was the 
unity of France, and the fusing, the welding together 
of two races into one nationality, capable henceforth 
of holding its own against all foreign enemies, whether 
German, Italian, or English. 

We must now say a few words about the relations 
of Philip Augustus with the Papacy. They were not 
of a very amicable character. On one occasion the 
king was decidedly wrong, on the other he was right. 
His first wife, Isabella of Hainault, having died, he 
married Ingelburge, daughter of the King of Den- 
mark ; but, strange to say, he at once conceived a 
strong aversion towards her, repudiated her almost 
immediately after the marriage, and obtained a 
sentence of nullity from a council summoned at Com- 
piegne. This step was followed by his espousing 
Agnes de Meranie, the beautiful daughter of the 
Count of Istria. So gross a violation of all the laws 
of morality and of decency could not remain un- 
punished, and after vain efforts to bring Philip Augustus 
to reason, Innocent III. placed the kingdom under a 
sentence of interdict, which meant the entire cessation 
of all religious services, except the administration of 



FRANCE UNDER INTERDICT. 8y 

baptism to new-born infants and of extreme unction 
to the dying. This melancholy state of things lasted 
eight months. In vain did the king deprive of their 
sees the prelates who observed the interdict ; in vain 
did he imprison Ingelburge. He was at last com- 
pelled to yield, and taking back the Danish princess, 
he separated from Agnes, who died broken-hearted in 
1213. 

The second occasion on which Philip Augustus 




^>^- 



PARIS UNDER PHILIPPE AUGUSTE. 



resisted the Pope was when, despite the threats of 
Innocent III., he took possession of the fiefs which 
John Lackland had lost by his felony. Here he was 
perfectly right, and he brought his undertaking to a 
prosperous issue. 

Philip Augustus did much for the administration 
and police of the kingdom, the beautifying of the 
city of Paris, and the extension of commerce and 



88 PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 

industry. We have already said that the earliest 
statutes of the Paris University were his work. He 
took the greatest pains with the administration of 
justice, established an improved fiscal system, and 
was the author of a most valuable institution, named 
La Quarantaine-le-roi. By virtue of this enactment, 
whenever any crime or injury had been committed, all 
private wars which would have resulted from it were 
strictly prohibited for a period of forty days, in the 
meanwhile the King had the offender arrested and 
punished. 

Philip Augustus died in 1223, and was succeeded 
by his son Louis, of whom all that can be said is that 
he was the son and the father of two great monarchs. 
Oi his mother's side (Isabella of Hainault) he de- 
scended from Charlemagne, so that by a fortunate 
coincidence he united in his own person the rights both 
of the Carlovingians and of the Capetians. He 
conquered over the English part of Poitou, Aunis, 
La Rochelle, Limoges, and Perigueux. Continuing 
the war against the Albigenses, he took possession of 
Avignon, obtained the submission of the entire south- 
vv'est of the Rhone, with the exception of Toulouse 
and Guienne, thus carrying on the work of territorial 
unity. Royal seneschals and bailiffs were appointed, 
at Beziers, Beaucaire, and Carcassonne. Louis VHI. 
was only 39 years old when he died, on the 8th 
of November, 1226. 




WALLS OF CARCASSONNE, 



V. 

SAINT LOUIS, TO HIS RETURN FROM HIS FIRST 

CRUSADE. 
(1226— 1254.) 

Louis VIII. had married Blanche of Castile, a 
princess remarkable both for her personal attractions 
and for her moral and intellectual qualities. She com- 
bined with deep religious views and earnest piety the 
greatest firmness of character and political skill of no 
mean order. She had four sons — Louis, who succeeded 
to the throne, Robert, Count of Artois, Alphonse, 
Count of Poitou, and Charles, Count of Anjou and of 
Maine. The crown was on the head of a mere child, 
only eleven years old, and the regent was both a 
woman and a foreigner. The barons thought the 
occasion an excellent one to recover their lost au- 
thority, and accordingly they made an alliance against 
Queen Blanche. She proved, however, too clever for 
them, and the confederacy utterly failed. Amongst 
the rebellious barons the most powerful was Thibaut, 
Count of Champagne, who, not satisfied with the 
accomplishments of a knight and a soldier, aimed 
also at being considered a lover of literature, and even 
wrote poetry. Whether the beauty of Blanche cap- 



LOUIS IX, 91 

tivated him, or her remonstrances put him to shame, 
it would be difficult to decide now, although the pro- 
bability is that both causes had a share in influencing 
him on the side of loyalty ; at any rate, he separated 
himself from his former confederates, and became the 
staunchest champion of the regency. The queen, in 
her turn, defended Thibaut from the attacks of the re- 
bellious nobles, and he having, through an inheritance, 
become King of Navarre, made over to the Crown the 
countships of Blois, Chartres, and Sancerre. Two other 
barons held out obstinately for a long time, namely, 
Philip Hurepel, the late king's half-brother, who was 
irritated at having his supposed claims to the regency 
set aside in favour of a foreign woman, and Mauclerc, 
Count of Brittany. The death of the former of these 
noblemen and the submission of the latter came 
opportunely to strengthen the power of the Crown. 
A treaty signed in 1229 secured to one of the king's 
brothers the domains of the Count of Toulouse, and a 
marriage between another prince of the royal family 
and the heiress of Provence, further enlarged the 
kingdom of France. Thus the reign began most 
auspiciously, and even when the majority of the king 
was proclaimed (1230), Blanche of Castile retained all 
her influence and her share in the management of 
affairs. 

The treaty of 1229 just alluded to put an end to 
the Albigensian difficulties and brought about thepaci- 
fication of Southern France ; but in order to prevent 
the recurrence of heretical opinions, an ecclesiastical 
court 'was established at Toulouse by virtue of a 
council held that same year. It was styled t/ie hi- 



92 



LOUIS IX. 



qidsition, and its members were selected from the 
order of Dominicans. The baneful influence exercised 
by the tribunal of the inquisition over Christendom 
has often been described, and need not be more than 
alluded to again. Suffice it to say, that it was the 




SAINT LOUIS. 



most formidable engine of ecclesiastical despotism 
the world ever saw. 

Under the careful and judicious training of his 
mother, Louis IX. became a model king, a pattern of 
all the virtues which most befit the ruler of a great 
nation, especially if we consider the troublous times 



yOINVILLE. 93 

during which he had to live. Let us quote on that 
subject a few extracts from the nai've and beautiful 
memoir for which we are indebted to his friend and 
confidential adviser, Jean, Sire de Joinville. 

" The holy king loved truth so much that even to 
the Saracens and infidels, although they were his 
enemies, he would never lie, nor break his word in 
anything he had promised them. 

" In his conversation he was remarkably chaste ; 
for I never heard him, at any time, utter an indecent 
word, nor make use of the devil's name, which, how- 
ever, is now very commonly uttered by every one, but 
which, I firmly believe, is so far from being agreeable 
to God that it is highly displeasing to Him. 

" My good lord the king asked me if I should wish 
to be honoured in this world, and afterwards to gain 
paradise ; to which I answered that I wished it were 
so. ' Then,' replied he, ' be careful never knowingly 
to do or say anything disgraceful, that, should it 
become public, you may not have to blush and be 
ashamed to say, " I have done this," or " I have said 
that." ' In like manner he told me never to give the 
lie, or contradict rudely whatever might be said in my 
presence, unless it should be sinful or disgraceful to 
suffer it, for oftentimes contradiction causes coarse 
replies and harsh words, that bring on quarrels, which 
create bloodshed, and are the means of the deaths of 
thousands." 

It is very amusing to see, every now and then, 
honest Joinville scandalizing the pious king by the 
frankness of his answers, which were not strictly 
orthodox. 



94 LOUIS IX. 

" The good king, once calling me to him, said he 
wanted to talk with me on account of the quickness 
of understanding he knew I possessed. In the presence 
of several persons he added : ' I have called these two 
monks, and before them ask you this question respect- 
ing God. Seneschal, what is God?' ' Sire,' replied 
I, ' He is so supremely good nothing can exceed 
Him.' 'In truth,' answered the king, 'that is well 
said, for your answer is written in the little book I 
have in my hand. I will put another question to 
you, whether you had rather be a leper, or have com- 
mitted, or be about to commit, a mortal sin ? ' But I, 
who would not tell a lie, replied that I would rather 
have committed thirty deadly sins than be a leper." 

" When the two friars were gone away he called me 
to him alone, making me sit at his feet, and said : 
' How could you dare to make the answer you did 
to my last question ? ' When I replied, ' Were I to 
answer it again I should repeat the same thing,' he 
instantly said : ' Ah ! foolish idiot, you are deceived ; 
for you must know that there can be no leprosy so 
filthy as mortal sin, and the soul that is guilty of such 

is like the devil in hell I therefore entreat of 

you, first for the love of God, and next for the affec- 
tion you bear me, that you retain in your heart what 
I have said, and that you would much rather prefer 
having your body covered with the most filthy 
leprosy than suffer your soul to commit a single deadly 
sin, which is of all things the most infamous." 

Passages such as those we have just quoted, and 
many others which might be adduced, give us a true 
insight into the character of Louis IX., scrupulously 



THE ENGLISH IN FRANCE. 95 

honest, high-minded, influenced throughout his life by 
the principles of Christianity, the incarnation of 
justice, adherence to duty, and patience in long-suf- 
fering. His defects were a certain deficiency of clear 
ideas in carrying out his designs, a want of firmness 
in his resolves, and a certain inability to exercise 
stern authority. This appeared most in the Crusades, 
to which we shall have occasion to refer by and by 
at greater length. 

The English were still endeavouring to secure a 
footing in France by exciting the barons to revolt. 
Defeated at Taillebourg and at Saintes, they would 
probably have been entirely driven out of the king- 
dom, had it not been for the scruples of the king. 
Here again his innate honesty appeared in all its 
force, in what others would have called unnecessary 
strictness. The royal domains had been extended to 
three times their original dimensions by the acquisi- 
tions made during the last fifty years. Louis objected 
to what was the result of two confiscations. By virtue, 
therefore, of a treaty which was signed only in 1259, 
he left to the King of England the duchies of Guienne 
and Gascogne, on condition that he should do homage 
for them to the French Crown ; he also obliged those 
lords who held fiefs from both crowns to choose be- 
tween the two suzerains. 

Driven out of Italy by the emperor, Frederick H., 
Pope Innocent IV. took refuge in France, and held 
(1245) at Lyons a council, in the course of which he 
preached another Crusade. The popularity of these 
expeditions had waned to a considerable extent, and 
thoughtful people, instead of being led to take the 



g6 LOUIS IX. 

cross in a moment of enthusiasm, now coolly discussed 
the results to be obtained from a war against the 
infidels. 

*' Horn puet bien en cest payx 

Gaaingnier Dieu sens grant damage ; 

Je di que cil est foux nayx 

Qui se mest en autrui servages, 

Quant Dieu peut gaaingnier sayx 

Et vivre de son heritage. . . . 

Je ne faz nul tort a nul home 

N'uns horn de moi ne fait clamour, 

Je cuiche tost et tien grand soume 

Et tieng mes voisins a amour. . . 

Je vueil entre mes voisins estre 

Et moi deduire et solacier. . . . 

Distes le Soudant vostre maistre 

Que je prispone son menacier : 

S'il vient de9a, mal me vit naistre 

Mais lui ne I'irrai pas chacier. . . . 

Sermoneiz ces hauz coroneiz, 

Ces gran doiens et ces prelaz. ... 

Clerc et prelat doivent vengier 

La honte Dieu, qu'il ont ces rentes. . . . 

lis ont a boire et a mengier. . .. 

Cil vont a Dieu par telle sente, 

Fol sont s'il la vuelent changier, 

Car c'est de toutes la plus gente. . . . 

Hom dit : ce que tu tiens, si tiens, 

Ci'ost bien mot de bone escole. . . • 
- Si crois par S. Pierre de Rome 

Qu'il me vaut miex que je demour." 



A man can very well in this country 

Obtain God without running much risk; 

I maintain that he is a born fool 

Who places himself under the dependence of others, 

When he can secure God, 

And, withal, live in his inheritance. . . . 

I do wrong to no man, 

And no man complains of me. 



LOUIS IX. AND THE CRUSADE. 97 

I go to bed early and sleep soundly, 

And I love my neighbours. . . . 

I wish to live amongst my neighbours, 

And enjoy and solace myself. . . . 

Tell the Sultan, your master, 

That I don't care for his threats. 

If he should come here so much the worse for me ; 

But I shall not go in pursuit of him. , . . 

Preach to those high-crowned princes, 

Those great deans and prelates. ... 

Clerks and prelates should avenge 

The shame cast upon God, for He bestows upon them 

their incomes. . . . 
They have plenty to eat and to drink. . . . 
If they can go to God by such a path 
It would be foolish in them to change it ; 
For of all it is the pleasantest. . . . 
Some one says : ' Lord, part what thou hast.' 
This is certainly a sound thought. 
I believe, by the name of S. Peter of Rome, 
That is better for me to stay here." 



Thus said the trouvere Rutebeuf in his " Desputizon 
du Croise et du Decroise," and .he was only expressing 
the opinion of all sensible men ; but Saint Louis who, 
struck down by a severe illness (1244), had made a 
vow to go to the Holy Land, thought that the time 
had come for him to carry out his intention. After 
making the necessary preparations, he took ship at 
the harbour of Aigues-Mortes (1248), at the head of 
a considerable army, leaving his mother, Blanche, for 
this time also, regent of the kingdom. Some of the 
Crusaders embarked at Marseilles, and, amongst 
others (somewhat reluctantly), the brave Seneschal of 
Champagne, Jean, Sire de Joinville. 

** It was the month of August in this same year 
(we quote the honest chronicler's own story) that we 



yOINVILLE AND VILLEHARDOUIN. gg 

embarked at the rock of Marseilles, and the ports of the 
vessel were opened to allow the horses we intended 
carrying with us to enter. When we were all on 
board, the port was caulked and stopped up as close 
as a large tun of wine, because, when the vessel was 
at sea, the port was under water. Shortly after, the 
captain of the ship called out to its people on the 
prow, * Is your work done ? are we ready ? ' They 
replied, * Yes, in truth, we are.' " 

" When the priests and clerks embarked, the 
captain made them mount to the castle of the ship, 
and chant psalms in praise of God, that He might be 
pleased to grant us a prosperous voyage. They all, 
with a loud voice, sang the beautiful hymn of ' Vcn'i 
Creator,' from the beginning to the end ; and while 
they were singing, the mariners set their sails in the 
name of God. Instantly after, a breeze of wind filled 
our sails, and soon made us lose sight of the land, so 
that we only saw sea and sky, and each day we were 
at a farther distance from the place from which we 
had set out." 

" I must say here, that he is a great fool who shall 
put himself in such danger, having wronged any one 
or having any mortal sins on his conscience ; for when 
he goes to sleep in the evening, he knows not if in the 
morning he may not find himself under the sea." 

This extract, taken from Joinville's " Life of Saint 
Louis," is a good specimen of one of the best models 
of French mediaeval literature. The friend of Saint 
Louis possesses all the picturesque qualities of Ville- 
hardouin, together with a tenderness, a pathos which 
we do not find in the " Conqueste de Constantinoble." 



100 BATTLE OF MAN SURAH, 

The flotilla forming the expedition arrived safely to 
the Egyptian shores, and the city of Damietta was 
taken on the 7th of July, 1249. Unfortunately, the 
Crusaders wasted much valuable time before con- 
tinuing their journey towards Cairo, and the Mame- 
lukes, cheered by the hesitations of their enemies, 
defeated them at Mansurah (February, 1250). One 
passage from Joinville's account of the battle may 
appropriately be given here : 

" After some little time, the Count Peter of Brittany 
came to us who were guarding the small bridge from 
Mansurah, having had a most furious skirmish. He 
was so badly wounded in the face that the blood came 
out of his mouth as if it had been full of water, and 
he vomited it forth. The Count was mounted on a 
short, thick, but strong horse, and the reins and the 
pommel of his saddle were cut and destroyed, so 
that he was forced to hold himself by his two hands 
round the horse's neck, for fear the Turks, who were 
close behind him, should make him fall off. He did 
not, however, seem much afraid of them, for he fre- 
quently turned round, and gave them many abusive 
words, by way of mockery." 

The battle of Mansurah cost the life of many a 
noble and stalwart knight, amongst others one of the 
king's brothers, the Count d'Artois. 

" Thus," says Joinville, " as we were riding together. 
Father Henry, prior of the hospital of Ronnay, who 
had crossed the river, came to him (Saint Louis) and 
kissed his hand, fully armed, and asked if he had 
heard any news of his brother, the Count d'Artois. 
' Yes,' replied the king, ' I have heard all : ' that is to 



THE PLAGUE, lOI 

say, that he knew well he was now in Paradise. The 
prior, thinking to comfort him for the death of his 
brother, continued : * Sire, no King of France has 
ever reaped such honour as you have done ; for with 
great intrepidity have you and your army crossed a 
dangerous river to combat your enemies ; and have 
been so very successful that you have put them to 
flight and gained the field, together with their warlike 
engines, with which they had wonderfully annoyed 
you ; and concluded the affair by taking possession 
this day of their camp and quarters.' " 

" The good king replied that God should be adored 
for all the good H^ had granted him ; and then heavy 
tears began to fall down his cheeks, which many great 
persons noticing were oppressed with anguish and 
compassion on seeing him thus weep, praising the 
name of God, who had enabled him to gain the 
victory." 

Not only was the Crusading army surrounded by 
the enemies, it had also to suffer from the plague, 
which did sad havoc amongst the troops, striking 
down Joinville himself and his chaplain. 

" My poor friend," we continue our quotations, 
" was as ill as myself ; and one day when he was 
singing mass before me as I lay in my bed, at the 
moment of the elevation of the host, I saw him so 
exceedingly weak that he was near fainting ; but 
when I perceived that he was on the point of falling 
to the ground, I flung myself out of bed, sick as I 
was, and taking my coat, embraced him, and bade 
him be at his ease, and take courage from Him 
whom he held in his hands. He recovered some 



102 THE QUEEN OF FRANCE. 

little ; but I never quitted him till he had finished 
the mass, which he completed, and this was the last, 
for he never after celebrated another, but died. God 
receive his soul ! " 

Louis IX. had married, in 1234, Marguerite, 
daughter of Raymond Berenger IV., Count of Pro- 
vence. She insisted upon accompanying her husband 
on the expedition, and shared with the greatest forti- 
tude and devotedness all the dangers to which the 
king was exposed. Whilst in France, she had had 
much to suffer from Blanche of Castile, who, not- 
withstanding all her brilliant qualities, was imperious, 
jealous, and exacting. Removed from her influence, 
Marguerite gave herself up exclusively to the duty of 
cheering her husband, encouraging him amidst all his 
difficulties, and bearing her full share of the dangers 
attending the unfortunate expedition. 

" You must know, also, that the good queen was 
not without her share [of miseries], and very bitter to 
her heart, as you shall soon hear. Three days before 
she was brought to bed, she was informed that the 
good king, her husband, had been made prisoner, 
which so troubled her mind, that she seemed con- 
tinually to see her chamber filled with Saracens ready 
to slay her ; and she kept incessantly crying out, 
' Help ! help ! ' when there was not a soul near her. For 
fear her child should perish, she made a knight watch 
at the foot of her bed without sleeping. This knight 
was very old, not less than eighty years, or perhaps 
more ; and every time she screamed he held her 
hands and said, ' Madam, do not be thus alarmed ; I 
am with you, quit these fears.' " 



104 THE FRENCH LEAVE EGYPT. 

" Before the good lady was brought to bed, she 
ordered every person to leave her chamber except the 
ancient knight ; she then cast herself out of bed 
on her knees before him, and requested that he would 
grant her a boon. The knight, with an oath, pro- 
mised compliance. The Queen then said, ' Sir 
Knight, I request on the oath you have sworn, that 
should the Saracens storm this town and take it, you 
will cut off my head before they seize my person/ 
The knight repHed that he would cheerfully so do, 
and that he had before thought of it, in case such an 
event should happen." 

The European knights were finally compelled to 
yield themselves prisoners, together with the king, 
whose spirit and lofty bearing inspired the Sara- 
cens with respect. The price required previous to the 
conclusion of a treaty and the release of Louis IX. 
was a very heavy one, viz., the surrender of Damietta 
and of several fortresses which the Christians still 
held in Palestine, besides a sum of 500,000 livres 
(^,408, 280 of modern English money). The King of 
France flatly refused to comply with the second clause 
of the proposition, declaring that he had no power to 
give up what w^as not his own, but the property of the 
other Christian princes and religious orders. Finally, 
the Sultan agreed to the terms named by Louis, the 
giving up of Damietta and the sum we have just 
mentioned : he was even astonished that the king had 
not objected to the payment of so great a ransom. 
" By my faith," said he, " the Frank is liberal not to 
have haggled about the money. Go tell him that I 
will give him 100,000 livres towards it." 



DEATH OF BLANCHE OF CASTILE. I05 

On the 7th of May, 1250, the Crusaders left the 
shores of Egypt, and on the 14th they reached 
Palestine, and landed at St. Jean d'Acre. 

Louis IX. remained in the Holy Land for the space 
of four more years, visiting all the towns still held 
by the Christians, repairing the fortifications wher- 
ever necessary, and endeavouring to put down the 
private feuds which had broken out in several quar- 
ters between certain barons. Of all the men who 
had embarked with him at Aigues-Mortes the great 
majority returned to France ; his two brothers were 
of the number, and when a discussion took place on 
the advisability of a prolonged stay of the army in 
the East, an overwhelming majority voted against it. 
The very few Crusaders who chose to remain with 
Saint Louis would have been utterly unable to attempt 
the conquest of Jerusalem, and the king, to whom the 
Sultan of Damascus offered every facility if he wanted 
to make a pilgrimage to the Holy City, refused the 
courteous proposition. He would not go there except 
as a victor and by force of arms. He was at Sidon 
at the beginning of 1253, when the news reached 
him that Queen Blanche of Castile, his mother, had 
died in Paris on the 27th of November, 1252. 

" This information," says Joinville, " caused him 
such grief that he was two days in Ms chamber with- 
out suffering any one to see him. On the third, he 
sent one of his valets to seek me ; c nd on my pre- 
senting myself he extended his arms, and said, ' Ah! 
Seneschal, I have lost my mother ! ' " 

" * Sir,' replied I, * I am not surprised at it, for you 
know there must come a time for her death ; but I 



I06 THE PASTOUREAUX, 

am indeed greatly so, that you, who are considered so 
great a prince, should so outrageously grieve ; for you 
know,' continued I, ' that the wise man says, what- 
ever grief the valiant man suffers in his mind, he 
ought not to show it in his countenance, nor let it be 
publicly known, for he that does so gives pleasure to 
his enemies and sorrow to his friends.' " 

The death of the Queen Dowager created, as may be 
supposed, great sensation throughout France ; nume- 
rous letters reached Saint Louis begging for his speedy 
return. Therefore, leaving Geoffroi de Sargines at 
the head of one hundred knights to protect the Chris- 
tians in Syria, he started on the 24th of April, 1254, 
from St. Jean d'Acre, arrived at Hyeres on the 8th of 
July, and reached Paris on the 7th of September. 

During the absence of the king several scandalous 
instances of abuse of authority had taken place on the 
part of the clergy, which led to seditions of a serious 
character. The most important was the revolt of the 
Pastoiireatix (L. /^j-/<?;r.y=^shepherds), caused, in the 
first instance, by the cruelty of the Chapter of Notre 
Dame of Paris. The peasants of the village of Chastenai, 
having refused to pay the taxes, a great many of them 
were shut up in prison, and, notwithstanding the 
entreaties of the Queen Regent, their wives and chil- 
dren shared the same fate. Other abuses of the like 
description led to a general outbreak, and in 1254 the 
revolt of the Pastoureaiix took place. The chronicler, 
Guillaume de Nangis, tells us that " some chiefs of 
banditti, in order to deceive simple folk and excite 
the people to a Crusade, announced by inventions full 
of deceit, that they had had visions of angels ; the 



THE MASTER OF HUNGARY. IO7 

holy Virgin Mary, they added, had appeared unto 
them, commanding them to take the cross and to 
assemble an army of shepherds and the most common 
people, chosen by the Lord, for the purpose of deli- 
vering the Holy Land and the King of France, who 
was a prisoner in that country. They represented the 
circumstances of their visions painted on banners, 
which they caused to be raised aloft before them." 

The rebellion broke out, first, in Flanders and 
Picardy, the leader being an unknown man called the 
Master of Hungary — eloquent, of a commanding ap- 
pearance, and speaking fluently several languages. 
He assumed the priestly rights, administered the 
sacraments, celebrated marriages, and the populace, 
excited by his appeals to rebellion, put to death the 
clergymen, whether regular or secular, who were im- 
prudent enough to wander through the rural districts. 
Queen Blanche began by taking the Pastoureaux under 
her protection, and even held a conference with the 
Master of Hungary ; but this mistaken kindness did 
not last long, and the terrible scenes which occurred 
at Orleans opened her eyes to the necessity of dealing 
severely with the rebels. The master had been holding 
forth to a large assembly, when a student of the uni- 
versity interrupted him, saying that he was a heretic 
and a deceiver ; a tumult immediately arose, the 
student was killed, and a general melee took place ; the 
bishop interdicted the city. The Pastoureanx then 
continued their march southwards ; at Bourges they 
met with the first severe check they had encountered, 
and were driven out of the city by the infuriated 
inhabitants. The Master of Hungary was pursued 



I08 THE PASTOUREAUX. 

and put to death. The extraordinar}^ enthusiasm 
which they had excited in the first instance subsided 
almost as suddenly. The fact is that the clergy 
spread abroad a report to the effect that the Pas- 
toureaux were paid by the Sultan of Babylon to 
slaughter as manv Christians as thev could ; on the 
other hand, it was asserted, with perhaps more truth, 
that the revolutionists were Albigenses, and that a 
fresh effort was being made to revive a damnable 
heresy. At any rate, the collapse was complete ; a 
number who had made their way as far as Bordeaux 
had to retire under the threats of Simon de Montfort, 
Earl of Leicester, who governed there in the name of 
the King of England ; others went to ^Marseilles, and 
then dispersed, not without leaving some of their adhe- 
rents in the power of the common hangman, who 
made them pay for the rest 

The rebellion of the Pastoureaiix helped to hasten 
the return of Saint Louis from Palestine. On arriving 
in Paris he promised to devote the remainder of his 
reign to the better administration of justice, and to 
the reforms which the state of the kingdom rendered 
absolutely necessar}-. 






VI. 



SAINT LOUIS ; END OF THE REIGN — LITERATURE, 
ARTS, AND SCIENCES DURING THE THIRTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

(1254-1270.) 

The reforms made by Louis IX. were of so impor- 
tant a character and led to such weighty consequences 
that they require to be examined a Httle in detail. 
Let us notice, in the first place, the suppression of 
judicial duels — a strange institution which placed 
right at the mercy of skill and physical strength ; 
this was merely an extension of Z^ Quarantaine-le-roi, 
and it was universally welcome. Another most note- 
worthy change must be mentioned. According to 
the rules of feudal society, every lord and baron ad- 
ministered justice within the limits of his own domains, 
appeal being allowable to the suzerain : (i) If the 
baron refused to render justice {defaiit de droit) ; (2) 
when the condemned person thought the sentence 
unfair {poiu^ faux jugenienf). Louis IX. encouraged 
appeals made directly to the Crown, and then gradually 
the baronial courts became subordinate to that of the 
king. The cour du roi, or parliament, under various 
names existed in France from the earliest days of the 



no LAW REFORMS, 

monarchy. It was presided over by the king, and 
consisted of the peers or feudatories of the Crown. 
Gradually the chief officers of the Crown {^iiinisteriales 
dommi regis), such as the chancellor, the bread-bearer 
{panetier), the butler {boiiteiller), the chamberlain, 
were required to sit with the peers, notwithstanding 
the complaints made by these. The substitution of 
written evidence instead of trial by combat was a 
further reform, and lawyers had to take an important 
part in the work done by the cour dii roi ; the chief 
amongst these were Pierre des Fontaines and Philippe 
de Beaumanoir. It is natural to suppose that the im- 
portance thus given to written texts led to a revival 
of the study of law ; already in the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries some Italian cities, Bologna in par- 
ticular, had become celebrated by the teaching of cer- 
tain lecturers deeply versed in the mysteries of Roman 
jurisprudence, and Irnerius saw crowds of pupils 
attend his lessons. Justinian was translated into 
French during the reign of Philip Augustus, and law 
schools were opened at Montpellier, Orleans, and 
Angers. Thus science joined effectually in the war 
against feudalism, and Saint Louis authorized in Lan- 
guedoc and in other places the use of the Roman law 
by preference to the old customs and traditions of 
the Franks, the Visigoths, and the Burgundians. 

In order to make quite sure that his commands 
and enactments were duly carried out, Louis IX. was 
in the habit of sending through the various provinces 
visitors who, like Charlemagne's missi dominici, had to 
report on the cases of injustice, infringement of the 
laws, &c. High social position, rank, and dignity were 



LAW REFORMS. Ill 

ineffectual to shield an offender from deserved punish- 
ment M. Cheruel (" Dictionnaire des Institutions") 
mentions two remarkable cases which illustrate this 
fact. Charles d'Anjou, the king's own brother, had 
taken possession of a piece of land against the will 
of the original owner, prorhising to pay the full value. 
He was obliged to restore it. The Sire de Coucy had 
caused three young men to be hanged for poaching. 
Notwithstanding the intervention of the whole baron- 
age of France, he was condemned to a very heavy 
fine. It was only in the case of Jews and heretics 
that Louis IX. was unrelentingly severe. "No one," 
said he, " should discuss v.^ith Jews unless he is a great 
clerk and a perfect theologian ; but when a layman 
hears the Christian faith evil spoken of, he should 
defend it not only with words, but with a sharp- 
cutting sword, which he should thrust through the 
miscreant's body as far as it will go." 

The work of Joinville contains two passages which 
have become classical, and which we shall quote here 
as illustrating most admirably the personal part which 
the king took in the administration of justice: 

" The king had his task arranged in such manner 
that My Lord de Nesle and the good Count of 
Soissons, together with us all who were around him, 
after attending mass, used to go and hear cases tried 
at the court of requests. And on returning from 
church. His Majesty would sit at the foot of his bed, 
then made us all sit around him, and asked us whether 
there was any case to be settled which could not be 
settled'without him ; we accordingly named them to 
him, whereupon he sent for the contending parties 



ST. LOUIS AS A yUDGE. II3 

and said to them : * Why do you not take what our 
men offer to you ? ' Then they answered : ' Sire, it is 
because they offer too Httle.' Then he said : ' You 
ought to take that from him who would make it over 
to you.' And the holy man thus worked with all his 
might to keep them in a proper and peaceful way," 

And further on : 

" Many a time it happened that in summer he 
would go and sit in the forest of Vincennes after mass, 
lean against an oak, and bid us sit around him. Then 
those who had business to transact came to speak to 
him, without being hindered by ushers or any other 
people. He then asked with his own lips : ' Is there 
any one here who has a suit .'' ' Then those who had, 
rose, and he said : * Be silent, all of you, and you shall 
be heard one after another.' Then he called my Lord 
Pierre de Fontaine and my Lord Geofifroi de Villette, 
and said to one of them : ' Despatch me that case.' 
And when he saw aught to amend in the words of 
those who spoke for him, or in the words of those 
who spoke on behalf of others, he himself corrected it 
with his own lips. In order to despatch the cases, I 
have often seen him come into the Paris gardens 
dressed in a camlet coat with an overcoat of woollen 
stuff without sleeves, a cloak of black taffetas fastened 
round his neck, neatly combed, having no cap, but 
merely a hat with white peacock's feathers on his 
head. He had carpets spread out for us to sit upon, 
and all those who had business for him to settle stood 
around him, and he heard the various cases according 
to the fashion I have mentioned above in the wood of 
Vincennes." 



114 ROADS — COINAGE, 

It will seem astonishing, perhaps, that in this long 
account of French jurisprudence during the reign of 
Louis IX., we have said nothing of the code of laws 
known by the name of " Etablissements de Saint 
Louis." The fact is that this document, important 
as it may be from a certain point of view, has no 
character of authenticity, and the anonymous person 
or persons who compiled it gave it the designation by 
which it is known, merely to secure for it as much 
popularity as possible. Many reasons might be 
adduced to prove that it does not belong to the reign 
of Louis IX., and the date assigned to it (1269) is 
amply sufficient to show the mistake of historians who 
still consider it as a monument of the holy king's 
legislative talents. It is not likely that, on the eve of 
starting for the Crusade, he could have found leisure 
enough to discuss matters of jurisprudence which are 
both complicated and difficult to settle. 

The high roads had become much safer in conse- 
quence of the abolition of private warfare, and also 
because every person was made responsible for the 
police of the highways within the limits of his domains. 
In Paris the king instituted a special body of armed 
police (1254), called the ^2ie^ rqy a/, and consisting of 
twenty foot and twenty horse sergeants. It was com- 
manded by an officer styled the chevalier du guet 
(Lat. miles gtieti). 

The first general rule on the French coinage was 
established in 1265. The king asserted his right of 
allowing the royal currency to circulate throughout the 
realm, and he prohibited the barons from coining gold 
pieces. This decree favoured in a notable way the 



TRADE AND INDUSTRY, II5 

development of commerce and industry, for the reason 
that the king's money being of the right weight and 
value, it soon superseded the baronial coinage. The 
nomination of Estienne Boisleve (or Boileau) as Pro- 
vost of Paris, turned out to be also an excellent 
measure. He drew up under the title of " Livre des 
metiers " the statutes and laws which had at various 
times been fixed by the guilds or corporations of 
tradesmen and artificers, and he did so in order that 
in case of lawsuits and discussions there might be a 
text-book to which the contending parties could 
appeal. From that curious document we know what 
the professions and trades were which during the 
thirteenth century gave employment to the greatest 
number of hands. Armourers, of course, held the 
foremost rank ; some workmen exclusively forged the 
spurs ; others devoted themselves to adorn with 
heraldic devices the various parts of the dress, trap- 
pings, &c. The heaumiers^ flechiers^ and arbalestriers 
dealt respectively in helmets, arrows, and cross-bows ; 
then there was the more peaceful but highly fashion- 
able guild of merchant-furriers, whose wares excited 
an admiration bordering upon madness : " Pelles 
castorum {beavers) et marturum {martins) quai nos 
admiratione sui dementes faciunt." Each corporation 
had its appointed shops or stalls in the market-places, 
and the general aspect produced a picturesque and 
varied sight. A contemporary poet describes to us 
in the following lively manner his walk through one 
of these gatherings of tradesmen and artisans : 

" Au bout par deca regratiers 
Trouve barbiers et cervoisiers, 



Il6 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 

Taverniers et puis tapissiers ; 
Assez pres d'eux sont les merciers. 
A la c6te du grand chemin 
Est la foire du parchemin ; 
Et apres trouvai les pourpoints. . . . 
Puis la grande pelleterie. . . . 
Puis m'en revins en une plaine, 
La ou Ton vend cuirs crus et luine ; 
M'en vins par la feronerie ; 
Apres trouv5.i la baterie, 
Cordouaniers et boureliers, 
Selliers et fremiers et cordiers." 

" At the end, beyond the (stalls of) the retail grocers 
I found the barbers and dealer in beer, 
The eating-houses and upholsterers' shops ; 
Near them are the mercers. 
By the highway side ^ 

Is the parchment fair ; 

Then I found the jackets (jacket-makers, tailors), 
Then the dealers in furs. . . . 
Then I returned by a plain. 
Where is sold raw leather and wool ; 
I came next the quarters of the ironmongers ; 
Then I found the coppersmiths. 
Shoemakers, and dealers in horse-hair, 
Saddle-makers, farmers, and rope-makers." 

It would take us too long to go through the whole 
list. Fairs played, of course, a great part in the 
history of mediaeval commerce. The principal French 
ones were those held at Falaisse {/aire de Guibray) 
in Champagne, and at Saint Denis, near Paris {foire 
du Landit, or Lendit). The origin of this last name is 
as follows: in 1109 a supposed fragment of the true 
cross having been brought to Paris, the bishop of the 
diocese ordered a meeting {indicium, hence Lindit, and 
by corruption Landit) to be held in the plain of 
Saint Denis, so that the people might come to look 



ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENT, II7 

at the relic. In course of time the indictitm became 
an annual fair, which lasted several days, and led to so 
much disorder, owing to the presence of the scholars 
belonging to the Paris University, that in Jean de 
Meung's continuation of the " Roman de la Rose," we 




SEAL OF LOUIS IX. 

find the substantive Landit used in the sense of a 
drunken bout. 

To conclude these remarks on the administration 
of Louis IX., and the general character of his govern- 
ment, we would say that the accession of the third 



Il8 FOUNDATIONS CREATED BY SAJNT LOUIS, 

estate to power dates from his reign. He granted, it 
is true, a few communal charters, but municipal inde- 
pendence pleased him as little as feudalism, and he 
encouraged as much as he could the transformation of 
the communes into " royal cities," which depended 
upon the Crown, whilst they were governed by mayors, 
councillors, and other magistrates elected by the 
burghers. Thanks to this interference of the king, 
France escaped the danger of falling into the anarchy 
which was for so many centuries the curse of Italy, 
leaving it a prey to the ambition and intrigues of the 
Emperors of Germany. 

Saint Louis endowed Paris with several foundations* 
some of which still subsist, and have rendered much 
service ; we shall name only two here, viz., the Hos- 
pital of the Quinze-vingts and the Sorbonne. The 
former of these establishments was created in 1254, 
for the reception of three hundred gentlemen (15 x 20) 
who had lost their eyes during the Crusade through 
the cruelty of the Saracens ; it is now one of the best 
known hospitals in Paris. 

With reference to the Sorbonne, it was one of the 
earliest colleges connected with the University of 
Paris, having been founded in 1202 by the king's 
confessor, Robert Sorbon or de Sorbonne, thus called 
from the village of Sorbonne, his native place. It 
became in course of time an exclusively' theological 
school, and obtained such reputation that the historian 
Mezeray, who flourished during the seventeenth 
century, styles it Le concile perinajtent des Gaules. 

The firm attitude which Saint Louis preserved to- 
wards the Papacy has caused him to be regarded as 



SAINT LOUIS STARTS FOR ANOTHER CRUSADE. II9 

the author of a deed called the P vagina tiquesanction^ 
which asserts the liberties of the Gallican Church, and 
guarantees the free election within the limits of the 
realm of France of all bishops, archdeacons, preben- 
daries, canons, and other dignitaries of the Church. 
The authenticity, however, of this document is now 
generally discarded, and only ignorance or prejudice 
can ascribe the slightest weight tq it. 

The good king, in the midst of all his administra- 
tive reforms, had never forgotten the claims of the 
Christians in the East on the sympathy of their 
Prankish brethren, and in 1270 he determined to 
start for another Crusade. On this occasion the 
Seneschal of Champagne flatly refused to follow him. 
" Those who advised him to start," says Joinville, 
" committed a great sin, considering the extreme 
weakness of his body, for he could bear neither the 
motion .of a vehicle nor that of a horse. His weak- 
ness was so great that he allowed me to carry him 
in my arms from the hotel of the Count of Auxerre, 
where I took leave of him, to the convent of the 
Franciscan friars {Cordeliers)^ and, weak as he was, if 
he had only remained in France, he might have lived 
long enough and done many good works. About' his 
voyage to Tunis I shall neither say nor relate any- 
thing, for, thank God, I was not there, and I will not 
say or write in my book anything of which I am not 
certain." Saint Louis died under the walls of Tunis 
on the 25th of August, 1270, and after an interval of 
twenty years the Crusaders had to retire from the 
Holy Land. 

Whilst these things were going on in Egypt and in 



I20 LITERATURE, 

Palestine, Charles of Anjou, brother to the King of 
France, had accepted from Pope Urban IV., as a fief, 
the kingdom of Sicily (Naples and Sicily), which 
Manfred had usurped, to the prejudice of his nephew 
Conradin still young. He marched into Italy at the 
head of an army of French and Provencal knights, 
was crowned king at Rome on the 6th of January, 
1266, and gained, on the 26th of February following, 
the Battle of Beneventum. To this expedition can 
be traced the pretentions raised from time to time 
by the French Crown to the kingdom of two Sicilies. 
The progress of literature and the fine arts during 
the thirteenth century must now engage our atten- 
tion, and we find there, as well as in questions of 
politics, results which deserve to be described some- 
what in detail. If we turn, first, to literature properly 
called, the two names of Villehardouin and Join- 
ville stand pre-eminent amongst prose writers, and the 
merits of him who wrote " Conqueste de Constanti- 
noble " appear the more conspicuous if we compare him 
with his dull continuator Henri de Valenciennes. In 
the walks of poetry we have to notice a period of 
decay so far as the romances of chivalry [chansons de 
geste) are concerned ; the age of enthusiasm is gone, 
and the trouveres have lost their originality. In a 
previous chapter we have attempted a classification of 
the principal subjects treated by the poets who aimed 
at describing the high deeds of ancient heroes ; we 
shall now consider separately the cycle of CJiaideinagne 
which is the most decidedly French of the three. 
For the sake of clearness it may be subdivided into 
three miwox geste s. i. Gcste dii Roi, where the glory of 



*' CHANSONS DE GESTE:' 121 

Roland casts into the shade even that of Charlemas[-ne. 
2. Geste de Garin de Montglane, the hero of which is 
Guillaume au Cort-nez, who won the Battle of Alis- 
camps. 3. The geste de Doon de May e nee, taken up by 
the exploits of Renaud de Montauban and Ogicr le 
Danois. Besides these three great branches or series 
of poems, we must not forget several srasWtr gestes^ 
such as the eycle de la Croisade [Chajison d'Antioche), 
the geste des Lorrains ( Gariji le Loherain), the geste de 
Blaives {Amis et Amile), &c., &c. The peculiarity of 
the trouveres of the thirteenth century was that, instead 
of composing original poems, they were satisfied for 
the most part with remodelling old compositions and 
clothing them with new dresses. Thus Graindor of 
Douai, taking Richard the Pilgrim as his pattern, 
recast the " Chanson d'Antloche ; " thus, again, Jean 
Bodel wrote " Chanson des Saisnes " (Saxons) or 
" Guiteclin (Witikind) de Sassoigne " (Saxony) from 
an old poem ; Adenes le roi, so called because he was 
" King of the Minstrels," modernized also " Berthe aus 
grands pies," " Beuves de Comarchis," and " Les en- 
fances Ogier." Amongst what may be called the ori- 
ginal romances of the thirteenth century we may 
name Jacques Forest's " Roman de Jules Cesar," the 
"Roman du bel ecu," or " Fregus et Galienne" by 
Guillaume de Normandie, Pyram's " Parthenopex de 
Blois, Gilbert de Montreuil's " Roman de la Violette " 
imitated by Boccaccio and from which Shakespeare 
borrowed the story of Cymbeline; Adenes le roi wrote 
the romaunt of" Cleomades," and, to complete this long 
list, we may mention " Floire et Blanceflor," the work 
of an author whose name is not exactly known. 



122 



''ROMAN DE LA ROSE.'* 



The poem, however, with which the thirteenth 
century in its decHne must ever be chiefly associated 
is the famous "Roman de la Rose," begun by Guillaume 
de Lorris about 1262, and finished by Jean de Meung 
about 1305. The former part of the work is an ex- 
traordinary association of mystic tenderness and of 
coarse sensuahty, of chivahous gallantry and of scho- 
lastic subtlety ; the latter half breathes the spirit of 
keen satire together with longings after a reformation 
which, if Jean Meung had had his way, would have 
been of the most sweeping character. 





TROUBADOURS. 

The voice of the troubadour no longer resounded ; 
Tonsons, Sirventes, planJis, auhades \\'ere gone for 
ever, and at the time immediately preceding the reign 
of Louis IX. the principal monument of Languedoc 
literature was a long-rhymed chronicle which has 
lately been published, and which was the work of two 
distinct poets ; the first part, composed between 12 10 
and 1 2 13, is directed against the Albigenses ; the 
second, to which the date of 12 18 or 1219 can be 
assigned, is inspired, on the contrary, by intense 



RUTEBEUF — MARIE DE FRANCE. I23 

hatred of the Crusaders, and is fairly entitled to be 
called a poem. 

If we were to enumerate all the trouveres who 
flourished during the reign of Saint Louis we should be 
drawn far beyond the limits of this chapter. Rute- 
beuf, the genuine precursor of Villon, must be named, 
however, amongst the most distinguished ; his style is 
elegant and natural, full of imagination, pathos, and 
genuine sentiment. The lays and fabliaux, whether 
anonymous or assignable to well-known authors, may 
be defined as miniature romaunts or tales characterized 
chiefly by the spirit of satire, and not unfrequently by 
a vis comica bordering upon coarseness ; the name of 
Marie de France must ever be associated with these 
compositions, and if she had written nothing but the 
" Lay du Frene " (containing the germ of the touching 
story o^ Griselidis) and the " Ysopet " (a collection of 
fables imitated from classical antiquity), she would still 
deserve not to be forgotten. The pretty story of " Au- 
cassinandNicolette"isoneofthegemsofthirteenth-cen- 
tury literature, but thebest known of all the compositions 
belonging to that time is undoubtedly the " Roman de 
Renart," which is claimed by Germany and the Nether- 
lands as well as by France, and which with its nume- 
rous branches and subdivisions is the embodiment of 
the satirical tendency of the Middle Ages. The days 
of chivalry are gone, and instead of Charlemagne, 
Turpin, Oliver and Roland, Ogier, Naime, and Huon, 
we find ourselves summoned before an assembly of 
animals, where the chief parts are taken by the lion 
{Noble), the fox (Renard), the woli {Ysengr in), the bear 
{Brim), the wild boar {Beaucent), &c. The triumph 



124 ^^^ DRAMA. 

of cunning over brute force and of hypocrisy over 
violence forms the subject-matter of the " Roman de 
Renart;" it runs through the works of Gauthier de 
Coinsy and the innumerable Bibles, castoienieiits^ and 
dits which the erudite authorities of the " Histoire 
Litteraire de la France " have so carefully analysed. 

Suppose now we take one of the poems just enu- 
merated, suppose, instead of a consecutive narrative, 
we introduce each of the dramatis personcE, telling his 
story and expressing his own opinions, we have im- 
mediately the drama under its twofold manifestations 
of sacred {inysteres and nioralites) and secular {farces). 
The mysteries were dramatized episodes of the Bible 
and of the legends of the saints, the principal, besides 
the " Mystere de la Passion," being that of Saint Nicolas 
by Jean Bodel, a native of Arras, whom we have already 
mentioned ; the earhest comedy or farce deserving to 
be named is the " Jeu de la feuillie," and the earliest 
comic opera, if we may use such a name, is the " Jeu 
de Robin et de Marion," both works being by another 
native of Arras, Adam de la Halle, surnamed the 
hunchback no one knows wh}% and who distinctly 
repudiated a sobriquet for which, as it seems, his 
personal appearance did not give the slightest pre- 
text : " On m'apele bochu^' said he, " mes je ne le sui 
mie." 

Between the essentially lyric poetry of the trouba- 
dours and the decidedly satirical strain of the troiivh^es, 
we find, as a transition, Thibaut, Count of Champagne. 
Himself a pupil of the troubadours, and like them an 
Epicurean by taste, notorious for the laxity of his 
morals and the scandal of his life ; he shared also 



THIBAUT DE CHAMPAGNE. 1 25 

their freedom of thinking, and their spirit of opposi- 
tion to the Church. Bound by his oath, he was com- 
pelled to take a part in the crusade against the 
Albigenses, and to fight Raymond, Count of Tou- 
louse ; but the following lines prove that his sympa- 
pathies were really on the side of the southern 
knights, and it would be difficult to find, even in 
Jean de Meung's bold poetry, a more bitter de- 
nunciation of the Holy See than in Thibaut de 
Champagne's sixty- fifth song. 

" Ce est des clers qui ont laisser sermons 
Pour guerroier et pour tuer les gens, 
Jamais en Dieu ne fuit tels horns creans. 
Nostra chief fait tous les membres doloir. 

Papelars font li siecle chanceler 

lis ont tolu joie, et solas et pais, 
Sen porteront en enfer le grant fais." 

*' There are clerks who have forsaken sermons 
In order to fight and to kill people. 
Such men never did believe in God. 
Our head (Innocent III.) makes all the limbs suffer. 
The followers of the Pope cause the world to totter, 
They have carried away joy, and solace, and peace, 
Therefore they shall carry to hell the great burden (of their misdeeds)." 

We cannot believe that so strict a king as St. Louis 
approved all the sentiments of the poets who were 
his contemporaries ; at the same time* he granted 
valuable privileges to the minstrels, jugglers, and 
other members of the brotherhood, and particularly 
exempted them from paying toll at the bridges. The 
minstrels in lieu thereof might treat the collector to a 
tune or a song, and the juggler might make his mon- 



126 PULPIT ELOQUENCE. 

key cut a caper or two. The well-known French 
proverb, " Payer en monnaie de singe " {--^ to deceive 
a person by false promises), has arisen from that 
ancient custom. 

The various branches of literature we have thus 
been considering are French exclusively — French by 
the form in which they are expressed, and by the 
inspiration under which they were written. If we 
now come to a more serious topic, to pulpit eloquence, 
we still find the vernacular language used, although 
monuments are very scarce and very imperfect. It 
was natural that preachers should retain in their 
sermons what may be called the ecclesiastical idiom, 
and that they should bestow upon Latin discourses 
most of their care and attention ; but they remem- 
bered that if often they had to preach ad cleros, their 
audiences consisted more frequently still of common 
and illiterate people, who could not have understood 
them if they had used the language of the Church ; 
we are therefore led to adopt the opinion arrived at 
by several learned historians, to wit (i) that all the 
sermons addressed to the faithful, even those written 
in Latin, were preached entirely in French ; (2) that 
the sermons intended for the clergy were, generally, 
preached in Latin. Maurice de Sully, Bishop of 
Paris, who died in 1196, composed a set of sermons 
intended to be a manual or guide for the priests of 
his diocese ; it is written in Latin, being in the first 
instance meant as a kind of authorized book, to be 
employed by those who had no talent or leisure for 
original composition ; but, at the same time, the pre- 
late expressly directed that these sermons should be 



CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. I27 

addressed to the whole congregation of faithful, and 
accordingly, as the final clauses of two MSS. expressly 
state, they were to be read in French. We have the 
authority of the chronicler, Humbert de Romans, to 
state that the early Dominican friars, even those of 
German origin, preached in that language, and one 
of them, Jourdain of Saxony, holding forth to a 
congregation of knights in Palestine, after having 
apologized for his imperfect knowledge of French, 
made frequent use of German words and phrases. 
The custom of thus intermixing the vernacular idioms 
with Latin gradually gained ground, and led in course 
of time to the macaronic style which characterizes the 
sermons of Michel Menot and Olivier Maillard. 

The transition from pulpit eloquence to church 
architecture is a natural one, and we are thus led to 
consider the state of the fine arts during the reign of 
Louis IX. It may be said that the renovation of 
church architecture took place shortly after the year 
1000. Up to that time, in the construction of sacred 
buildings, nothing more was aimed at but the imitation 
of the ancient basilica. No sooner was the Christian 
world delivered from the terrors of the day of judg- 
ment, which so many had proclaimed as about to be 
ushered in with the eleventh century, than, as \{ it had 
been through a desire of expressing substantial grati- 
tude to the Deity, the whole population set about 
erecting cathedrals, parish churches, abbeys, and 
monasteries. From the school of Cluny, and other 
similar establishments, came forth architects of the 
greatest merit, and the Gothic style of construction 
made its first appearance. The principal cathedrals 




[if- 



SAINT WULFRAN, X. ABBEVILLE. 




iNOTRE DAME OF PARIS. 

Ik 




130 THE FINE ARTS. 

belonging to that epoch are those of Chartres, Bourges, 
Amiens, Paris, and Rouen ; nor must we forget the 
Sainte Chapelle, one of the most elegant specimens 
of Gothic architecture which the metropolis of France 
can boast of. 

It has often been noticed that what may be called 
/av or secular architecture followed closely the same 
type as the one adopted for the erection of churches; 
the reason for this is twofold. In the first place, 
religious establishments held the foremost rank in the 
social order ; and, secondly, the monks alone being 
architects, painters, sculptors, and decorators, they 
could scarcely help introducing in the economy of 
secular buildings the usual way they had of drawing 
a plan, and carrying out its execution. The art of 
sculpture and that of painting made considerable 
progress in France during the thirteenth century. 
M. Viollet le Due tells us that so far as drawing is 
concerned, together with the correct observation of 
movement, composition, and even expression, the 
French artists cast off the trammels of conven- 
tionalism long before the Italian ones. " The paint- 
ings and vignettes which the thirteenth century has 
bequeathed to us are the proof of that fact, and fifty 
years previous to Giotto, we had amongst us painters 
who had already realized the progress ascribed to the 
pupil of Cimabue. From the twelfth century to the 
fifteenth drawing becomes modified ; fettered at first 
by the traditions of Byzantine art, it begins by shaking 
off those rules of a particular school; without abandon- 
ing style, it looks for principles derived from the 
observation of nature. The study of gesture soon 



MUSIC, 



131 



attains to a rare delicacy, then comes a search after 
what is called expression. . . . As early as the second 
half of the thirteenth century we recognize striking 
efforts of composition ; the dramatic idea finds its 
place, and some of the scenes betray powerful energy." 
Mural and decorative painting had more difficulties 
to contend with, but they also showed decided pro- 
gress. 

The influence of the Church could not but be much 
felt in music, and when we speak of that art, as it 
flourished during the Middle Ages, we must be under- 
stood to refer to plain chant, motets, hymns, and in 
general to psalmody. Modern music may be said to 
have sprung into existence when Gothic architecture 
had attained its perfection ; and it would have been 
strange if Saint Louis, so anxious to have Divine ser- 
vice celebrated with all possible perfection, had not 
given his attention to music. The names of several 
organists have been handed down to us, and the 
cathedral church of Notre Dame in Paris claims the 
most celebrated amongst them ; Leonin, for instance, 
and Perotin. The king did not care for secular 
music, and whilst most of the high barons had 
minstrels as part of their household, Louis IX. had 
none. When Marguerite de Provence came to 
Sens on her coronation, her father brought with 
him a minstrel and six troubadours ; these did 
not remain at Court, but at the same time they 
were handsomely remunerated, and on the state- 
ment of expenses made for the occasion, we find 
112 livres, 20 sols, and 12 deniers for the minstrels, 
together with 10 livres paid to the minstrel of the 



132 INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 

Count de Provence. The list of musical instruments 
in use during the Middle Ages was a long one ; be- 
sides the organ, the lyre, and the harp, we find 
the violin (vze//e, rote, rebec), the guitar or guiterne, 
the doulcemer {dulcimer), the trumpet, the sackbut, 
the drum, &c. ^\\q. nacawe or naqiiaire, mentioned by 
Joinville, seems to have been a kind of cymbal, and 
the dulcimer very like our piano. 

The industrial arts claim also a mention here, and 
as a matter of course the improvements of every kind 
introduced into church architecture and decoration, 
told upon carpentering, carving, the " craft and 
mystery " of joiners, goldsmiths, silversmiths, and 
blacksmiths. Tombs, relic-cases, stalls, lecterns, 
fonts, incense-boxes, candelabra, crucifixes — in fact, 
all the articles used for ecclesiastical purposes, all 
the monuments belonging to the church were exe- 
cuted with a degree of perfection and of taste which 
has never been surpassed. 

In conclusion, the thirteenth century marks the 
most brilliant epoch of the Middle Ages, and in that 
epoch the reign of Saint Louis forms, so to say, 
the central point. After the death of that glorious 
monarch, decay sets in, the old order of things falls 
gradually to pieces, and to the prevalence of honour, 
courage, loyalty, and self-sacrifice succeeds the 
triumph of insolence, cowardice, treachery, avarice, 
and selfishness. 



VII. 



PHILIP III.— PHILIP IV. 

(1 270-1 3 14.) 

Why Philip III. should have been surnamed "the 
Bold " [le hardi) it would be difficult to say. He had 
inherited the meekness and the piety of his father, but 
none of his other virtues, and the contemporary 
chronicles have very little to say about him. Charles 
de Valois was the French prince who occupies the 
stage of history during the last ^^"^ years of the 
thirteenth century, and around him is gathered all 
the interest which belongs to the country of the 
fleurs-de-lys. It is even still a matter of doubt 
whether Philip knew how to write ; at any rate, his 
mind absolutely lacked culture. During his reign, 
however, the royal power went on acquiring strength, 
and fresh provinces were added to the kingdom ; in 
fact, he inherited from almost every member of his 
family. The death of his brother, Jean Tristan, 
brought to him the province of Valois ; his uncle 
Alphonso left to him nearly the whole of Southern 
France : Poitou, Auvergne, Toulouse, Rouergue, 
Albigeois, Quercy, Agenois, Comtat Venaissin ; 
finally he got possession of Navarre by marrying hi^ 



134 PHILIP III. — CHARLES D'ANJOU, 

son Philip to the daughter of the Count of Cham- 
pagne, who was also king of that fertile province. It 
is true that Agenois was restored to England, and the 
Comtat to the Pope, but still the authority of the new 
monarch extended over nearly all the country com- 
prised between the Loire and the Pyrenees, and a few 
attempts of resistance having taken place, they were 
speedily put down. 

Charles d'Anjou, as we have already said, was at 
that time the real French king. Count of Florence, 
King of Naples and Sicily, a Roman senator, imperial 
vicar in Tuscany, lord of most of the cities in Northern 
Italy, he might have been satisfied with the immense 
power then concentrated in his hands. The political 
state of Europe had singularly favoured his ambitious 
plans. Germany was without an emperor ; Italy was 
rent asunder by the feuds between the Guelphs and 
Ghibelines ; a dispute on points of doctrine had 
separated the Eastern from the Western Church ; and 
the empire of Constantinople was threatened as the 
focus of a dangerous schism. Charles d'Anjou took 
advantage of this state of things ; he aimed, not only 
at being Emperor of the East, but at taking posses- 
sion of Jerusalem and of Egypt. Such exorbitant 
pretensions could not be tolerated, and even Pope 
Gregory X. saw the necessity of stemming the torrent. 
He contrived to bring about a reconciliation between 
the conflicting factions in Italy, secured the election 
of Rodolph of Hapsburg to the throne of Germany, 
and put an end to the schism at the council of Lyons. 
When he died Nicolas III., his successor, adopted the 
same policy. The danger thus minimized was entirely 



THE SICILIAN VESPERS. I35 

removed in consequence of the event which is known 
as the Sicilian Vespers. A Calabrian physician, lord of 
the island of Procida, had been for some time travel- 
ling about for the purpose of stirring up enemies 
against Charles d'Anjou. Having secured the active 
co-operation of Don Pedro, King of Arragon, he 
organized a conspiracy, and selected Sicily as the spot 
where the rising was to take place. That island, 
ground down by the tyranny of Charles, drained of 
its financial resources, subjected to the most iniquitous 
system of taxation, was treated with insolence by 
the French, who took every opportunity of asserting 
their superiority over the wretched inhabitants. " On 
Easter Monday (March 30, 1282) the population of 
Palermo, according to custom, had gathered together 
for the purpose of attending vespers on the hill of 
Monreale. A young lady of noble birth was in the 
crowd, accompanied by her betrothed lover \ a 
Frenchman approaches her, charges her with having 
weapons concealed under her clothes, and attempts 
to search her in the most indecent manner. He is 
immediately killed, and his death becomes the signal 
of a universal massacre. Measures to that effect had 
been taken beforehand, the houses inhabited by the 
French, for instance, were all marked with a peculiar 
sign during the previous night. No one escaped who 
could not pronounce the letter c in the Italian 
fashion. The whole of Sicily followed the example of 
Palermo." ' In the meanwhile Don Pedro, accompanied 
by Procida, started for Sicily, at the head of a powerful 
fleet, which took possession of the Straits of Messina. 
^ Bordier and Charton, " Histoire de France." 



136 PHILIP III, MAKES WAR WITH SPAIN, 

Charles d'Anjou did not repose much confidence in 
his own sailors ; he raised the siege of Messina which 
he had been blockading, and crossed over to Italyj 
having to suffer the humiliation of seeing his ships 
destroyed. It is said that he kept biting his sceptre 
out of sheer rage. Finding that fortune was aban- 
doning him, he exclaimed, " Grant, O my God, that 
the descent may take place by slow steps and gently." 
After several prolonged and unhappy efforts tocontinue 
the struggle Charles d'Anjou died on the 7th of Jan- 
uary, I285,declaringthat "hehad undertaken theenter- 
prise of the kingdom of Sicily rather for the benefit of 
the Holy Church than for his own private advantage." 
His uncle now dead, Philip HI. had to bear the 
brunt of the war against Spain, and to avenge the 
honour of the Valois family. A crusade was preached 
against Spain, and the King of France crossed the 
Pyrenees at the head of a splendid army, which some 
historians estimate at twenty thousand cavalry and 
eighty thousand infantry ; a powerful fleet coasting 
along the shore was to keep this large force amply 
supplied, as well as to assist it in case of need. The 
town of Elne taken after a desperate resistance, 
seemed to be the prelude of great things ; but the 
French lost two months in besieging Gerona, and 
when that place had capitulated, the invaders were so 
reduced by the climate, the heat and pestilential 
diseases, that they were obliged to retrace their steps 
and to return home. Philip had just time to reach 
Perpignan before he died (October 5, 1285). His fleet 
had been defeated, and a week after the death of the 
King of France, Don Pedro occupied Gerona. 



PIERRE DE LA BROSSE. ^ 137 

Amongst the monuments of French dramatic 
literature during the Middle Ages there is one which 
we shall mention here, not on account of anv merit 
it possesses, but because it refers to an extraordinary 
incident in the reign of Philip III. It is entitled 
" Le Jeu de Pierre de la Broce," and is preceded by a 
coinplainte or dirge on the same person. Now, Pierre 
de la Brosse, belonging to a very humble family, had 
been originally barber to Philip III. Being extremely 
clever, ready-witted, and sharp, he contrived to gain 
the confidence of his master, and to become Prime 
Minister. Philip was married twice; his first wife, 
Isabella of Arragon, died shortly before her husband 
ascended the throne. In 1274 he took as his consort 
Mary of Brabant, and the following year, Louis, the 
eldest of his sons by Isabella, having died of poison, 
as it was supposed, Pierre de la Brosse managed to 
persuade the king, that Mary of Brabant was guilty 
of the crime, and that she had formed the plan of 
despatching in like manner the other children, in order 
to secure the throne for her own offspring. Philip, 
of course, was extremely angry, and determined upon 
having his wife burnt alive ; but the princes of the 
blood and the chief lords, to whom he communicated 
his suspicions, persuaded him not to act too rashly. 
Before he followed out his intentions he should 
make all necessary inquiries, and consult some 
person learned in sorcery and witchcraft. They 
selected a nun of Nivelle, in Brabant, the dominions 
of the queen's father, and sent to her for the purpose 
of consultation the Bishop of Dol and a Knight- 
Templar. " Tell from me to the king," answered the 



138 MARY OF BRABANT. 

oracle, " that he must not believe the slanderous 
reports circulated about his wife ; for she is good 
and loyal both towards him and towards all his 
family, and her heart is sincere." Some historians 
add that the nun went on to say that the young 
prince had been poisoned by a man who enjoyed 
the king's confidence. No other but Pierre de la 
Brosse was evidently meant by this designation. 

Whether the last part of the story is true or not, 
the Prime Minister became suspected in his turn, and 
soon paid the penalty of his misdeeds. Mary of 
Brabant was still treated as if she was guilty, and 
confined to her apartments. The Count d'Artois, 
who was a relation both of the king and of the 
queen, having offered to maintain her innocence in 
single combat, and no one accepting the challenge^ 
she re-appeared in public. About that time a packet 
of letters was delivered to the king, coming from 
Spain and addressed to Pierre de la Brosse ; on 
opening it, proof was found that the Prime Minister 
had been carrying on a treasonable correspondence, 
and he was immediately arrested on that charge, 
tried in Paris, and condemned to be hanged. Thus 
it was that Mary of Brabant was avenged of the 
vilest and boldest accusation ever put forth ; from 
that time she lived in perfect harmony with her 
husband ; she had three children, one son who, prior 
to his ascending the throne, was Count d'Evreux, and 
two daughters. 

Before taking leave of Philip the Bold, we must not 
forget to mention two facts which are of importance 
as illustrating the decay of feudal institutions. In the 



PHILIP IV. 139 

first place, by granting (1272) a patent of nobility to 
his treasurer Raoul, the king gave the earliest 
instance on record in French history of a commoner 
,being admitted into the aristocracy ; secondly, leave 
was granted for commoners to enjoy the possessions 
of fiefs. Thus nobility ceased to be a natural quality 
which could neither be lost nor purchased ; it was 
reduced to a privilege conferred to this or that man 
by the accident of his birth or the good pleasure of 
the king, to the prejudice of his equals. Any one 
was qualified to exercise the rights it implies, and to 
discharge the duties resulting from it. 

PhiHp IV, was seventeen years old when he 
ascended the throne, and from the very beginning 
of his reign it was quite evident that the power was 
in the hand of the legists. The days of feudalism 
had passed away for ever, and a period of transition 
was commencing. Under the old system, as there 
was no administration properly so called, government 
agents did not exist , as the vassals of the Crown 
were compelled to do military service, there was no 
mercenary troops, no need to provide for the pay 
of a. permanent army. Things now were totally 
different ; the royal domain included two-thirds of 
France instead of half a dozen towns as heretofore ; 
hence the necessity of a host of judges, notaries, 
provosts, seneschals, counsellors, &c. It was the same 
in matters of war ; whereas formerly, as a general 
rule, warlike expeditions were confined within rela- 
tively small limits, now troops had to be moved 
towards the Pyrenees, the Rhine, the Garonne, the 
shores of the Mediterranean. Fleets were indispens- 



140 LOW STATE OF THE EXCHEQUER. 

able, and the feudal militia could not suffice. Now 
law-agents must be paid ; seneschals appointed by the 
king will not explain the law gratis, counsellors insist 
on being remunerated for giving advice. In like 
manner, if the feudal militia is • not equal to the 
exigencies of a campaign, mercenary troops must be 
called in ; they are subjected to strict discipline, and 
their services can always be depended upon ; but 
they very naturally require to be paid ; and if the 
Genoese galleys (as in the case of the war with 
Flanders) are retained in addition to the ships from 
Poitou and Normandy, money must be forthcoming. 
We thus see that Philip the Fair {le bel, such was 
his surname) was very short of money, and as the 
expenses kept increasing whilst the national income 
remained the same, France seemed on the eve of a 
bankruptcy. Philip tried several means of replenish- 
ing the exchequer, but he was very unwise in the 
schemes he adopted, and whilst grinding down the 
people, he did no good to the State. One of his 
first plans was to extort money arbitrarily out of the 
Jews and Lombards — the bankers of those days. 
Driven from France the Jews carried their riches 
into foreign lands, the Lombards concealed theirs, and 
commerce came to a standstill. Now, Philip turned 
coiner and this, of course, did not mend matters ; 
he ordered all the old coinage to be melted, with the 
view of altering its value ; further, under the pretence 
of enforcing the sumptuary laws, he confiscated the 
gold and silver plate of those persons who had not 
a large fortune, and caused it to be cast into the 
smelting furnace out of which it came in the shape 



PHILIP IV. AND THE ENGLISH. 14I 

of li-ures and sons parisis^ nominally equal in value 
to what they used to be, but really worth much less ; 
the consequence was the ruin of industry. His 
endeavour to raise taxes in Flanders led to a rebel- 
lion ; his bold endeavour to get money out of the 
Church ended in a quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII. ; 
we shall see presently the mysterious history of the 
Templars and the destruction of the order. 

Philip the Fair was not naturally of a fighting 
disposition ; as soon as he could, he got rid of useless 
warfares by treaties and peaceful arrangements, and 
set about extending his domains by marriages and 
other quiet contrivances. His union with the heiress 
of Navarre and Champagne procured to him two 
important provinces ; a sentence of parliament 
deprived the heirs of Hugh de Lusignan to the 
profit of the French Crown, which was thus put in 
possession of Marche and Angoumois ; finally, Philip's 
second son took to wife the heiress of Franche Comte. 
Remained the countship of Flanders and the duchies 
of Guienne and Brittany. Here fighting was a matter 
of absolute necessity, and Philip tried first what he 
could do in Southern France. Edward I., King of 
England, w^as at the same time Duke of Guienne, 
and might have proved a dangerous adversary for 
Philip had he not been entirely absorbed by the 
affairs of Wales and of Scotland. Philip's army 
marched into Guienne, whilst his fleet plundered 
Dover. The Count of Flanders had sided with 
Edward ; Philip invaded his domains and defeated 
the Flemings at Furnes (1295). Thanks to the 
intervention of the Pope, peace was concluded between 



142 PHILIP IV. AND THE FLEMINGS, 

France and England, the treaty being confirmed 
by the marriage of the daughter of PhiUp the Fair 
with the son of the King of England. Thus it 
happened that prospective claims to the crown of 
France were enjoyed by England — claims which later 
on Edward III. knew how to put forth, and to sup- 
port by the power of his arms. Hitherto Philip had 
sided with the Scotch ; he abandoned them to his 
new ally, who in his turn forsook the Count of 
Flanders. Thus deserted, this prince was struck 
with terror ; he came in person to surrender to 
Philip, and Flanders was annexed to the kingdom 
of France. 

Common sense should have suggested to Philip 
the advisability of treating the Flemings with kind- 
ness, or, at any rate, with a certain amount of courtesy. 
Unfortunately he adopted a totally different course, 
and sent amongst them as a governor, Jacques de 
Chatillon, who thought that he had nothing to do 
but to get as much money as he could out of a rich 
and thriving population, and to convince them that 
^ their riches would avail them nothing against the 
power of the fleurs-de-lys. He began by depriving 
the citizens of their municipal elections, and of the 
right of managing their own affairs. This ill-judged 
measure alienated the upper classes. His next act 
was to oblige the workmen to pay to the Crown one 
fourth of their daily salary. This irritated the poor. 
An amount of agitation took place which Chatillon 
did not anticipate, although the ill-will of the 
Flemings had manifested itself on the very first day 
of the French occupation. The centre of the move- 



BATTLE OF COURTRAL I43 

ment was at Bruges, which Chatillon had visited 
with his wrath ; he had confiscated the privileges 
of the town, dismantled it, and was constructing 
a citadel with the view of keeping the citizens in 
order. A massacre of the French took place on 
May 17, 1302, and precautions were taken by the 
inhabitants to prev^ent the foreign knights from 
retaliating. Chains were drawn across the streets, 
and all the available bridles and saddles seized by 
the magistrates for the purposes of furnishing an 
improvised body of cavalry. The report that the 
King of France was advancing at the head of an 
army of sixty thousand men only served to exaspe- 
rate the people of Bruges, who were nearly the only 
part of the population which seemed determined to 
fight. "Attacked before Courtrai, they coolly awaited 
the French, having taken up their position at the 
back of a semi-circular ditch, concealed both by 
branches of trees and by the bulrushes which filled the 
marshes. A priest celebrated mass, and at the moment 
of the devotion, each man taking up a little earth 
raised it to his lips, thus showing that he joined in 
the communion with his fellow- citizens. The French 
were full of confidence ; in order to have the whole 
honour of the victory, they pushed aside the Italian 
archers who formed a kind of auxiliary force. They 
had the advantage at first ; but the Count d'Artois 
having crossed the ditch was killed close to the 
banner of Flanders, and the horsemen who followed 
him stumbled upon one another in utter confusion. 
Thus disabled and helpless, they became the easy 
victims of their enemies, who made of them a terrible 



144 PHILIP IV. AND THE CHURCH, 

slaughter. Twelve thousand sergeants-at-arms were 
then killed in a marsh, which subsequently received 
the name of the Blood Marsh. We are told that on 
the field of battle the gold spurs of the knights were 
measured by the bushel " ^ 

We may imagine how joyfully the news of Philip's 
defeat was received at Rome, Florence, Toulouse, and 
Bordeaux. It is true that the French avenged their 
honour at Mons-en-Puelle (1304), but the king having 
besieged Lille, a general rising of the whole of 
Flanders took place, and Philip drew back ; he 
obtained Douai, Lille, Bethune, Orchies, and the whole 
of French Flanders situated between the Lys and 
the Scheldt, and as a kind of compensation he gave 
back to the Flemings their count, who did him 
feudal homage for his domains. Thoroughly ruined 
by the war, he returned to his kingdom, and found 
there great irritation caused by the famine, the altera- 
tion of the coinage, and the other financial measures 
which he had so injudiciously forced upon the people. 
He now turned his attention towards the Pope, and 
thought he would replenish his exchequer at the 
expense of the Church. 

As early as 1296 differences had arisen between 
Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair, on account of 
certain taxes which the king wished to levy on 
ecclesiastical property. " Between the famished king," 
says M. Michelet, "and the hungry starved to death, 
there was some one rich, and that some one was the 
Church, archbishops and bishops, canons and monks 
— monks ancient, belonging to the order of Saint 

^ Bordier and Charton. 



ARREST OF BERNARD SAISSET. 145 

Benedict ; monks modern, styled mendicant friars — 
they were all rich, and vied with each other in point 
of opulence. All that tonsured society throve on 
the blessings of heaven and the fat of the land. 
It was a small and happy community, obese and 
shining, in the midst of the great famished people, 
which was beginning to look at them with an 
unfavourable eye." 

Concord seemed however to be re-established for a 
short time, and Boniface VIII., as an earnest of good 
will, pronounced the canonization of Louis IX. This 
was only a brief respite, and the proud interference 
of the Pope in the home policy of France made 
things worse than ever. One of the Papal legates, 
Bernard Saisset, an ambitious and violent man, 
Bishop of Pamiers, used on a certain occasion offen- 
sive and even treasonable language towards the King 
of France, and what was more, in the king's own 
presence. Philip could not brook such insolence ; he 
caused Bernard Saisset to be arrested, and requested 
the Archbishop of Narbonne, his metropolitan, to 
pronounce his canonical degradation. The arch- 
bishop having referred to the Pope, Boniface VIII. 
by way of answer, fulminated the famous Bull 
Ausculta^ fili^ which resulted in his being shamefully 
treated, and in his meeting finally with a pitiable 
death. The whole of this affair was characterized 
on both sides by acts of violence which would have 
marred the best cause, and which did equal injury to 
the King of France and to the Pope. The drift of 
the Bull will be seen from the following quotation : 

" God has set me, though unworthy, above kings 



146 'bull '' ausculta, fill'' 

and kingdoms, having imposed upon me the yoke of 
apostoHc servitude, to root out and to pull down, to 
destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant, in 
His name. Wherefore let no man persuade you that 
you have no superior, or that you are not subject to 
the supreme head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. He 
who thinks so is a madman, and if he persists in his 
error, is convicted as an infidel. 

"Although it is certain that the nomination to all 
benefices belongs to the Pope, and that you have no 
right to any such patronage without the consent of 
the Holy See, you oppose our collations, and claim 
to act as judge in your own cause. You drag before 
your tribunals the bishops and other clergy of your 
kingdom, both regular and secular, even for matters 
concerning property which they do not hold from 
you in fief You exact from them tenths and other 
imposts, although laymen have no authority what- 
ever over the clergy. You hinder the bishops from 
employing the spiritual sword against offenders, and 
from exercising their jurisdiction over conventual 
houses. You observe no moderation in disposing of 
the revenues of vacant episcopal sees which you call 
by an abuse, ' Droit de regale! You squander tliese 
revenues, and turn into plunder what was a means of 
preserving them intact." 

The Bull Aiiscidta, fili^ accompanied by the one 
known as Salvator mundi^ and by three others, was 
issued on the 3rd of December, 1301 : it had been 
preceded by the Bulls Ineffabilis amoris (February 
7, 1297) and Clericis laicos (February 24, 1296). 
Whilst denouncing the bad administration of Philip 



GUILLAUME DE NOGARET. 147 

the Fair, and the iniquitous taxes which he im- 
posed upon his subjects, Boniface VIII. was perfectly 
right, and he was well aware that the tax called 
inaltote (L. male tolta^wxvidXxXy raised), exacted from 
certain large towns had caused rebellions, at Rouen, 
for instance (1292); but, on the other hand, he formed 
on the power of the Papacy ideas which were no 
longer admissible. The days of Gregory VII. had 
gone never to return, and the lawyers who really 
governed the kingdom under the name of Philip, 
endeavoured to establish the rule of Roman law 
which gives to the king absolute power, including 
that of interfering in the administration of the 
diocese. Hence a deplorable quarrel. Supported by 
the unanimous vote of the States-General (1302), 
Philip threatened Boniface with a council, before 
which he meant to summons him ; the Pope in his 
turn prepared a Bull for the deposition of the king. 
This was too much ; one of the agents of Philip the 
Fair, Guillaume de Nogaret, was in Italy, at Anagni, 
the birthplace of Boniface VI I L, who -had himself 
repaired there from Rome. Nogaret had contrived to 
gain the support of the inhabitants, and was accom- 
panied by Sciarra Colonna, a nobleman of Roman 
origin, and a mortal enemy of the Pope. We should 
remark that Nogaret's grandfather had been formerly 
burnt alive as belonging to the sect of Albigenses ; 
he could not, therefore, feel very favourably disposed 
towards the Holy See. He entered Anagni at the 
head of four hundred men, and marched towards 
the palace amidst the cries of " Death to the Pope ! 
Long live the King of France 1 " Boniface was 



148 POPES BONIFACE VIII, AND BENEDICT XL 

sitting on his throne, arrayed in his pontifical vest- 
ments, with the tiara on his head, holding a cross 
in one hand, and the keys of St. Peter in the other. 
Being ordered to abdicate, he said, "Here is my neck, 
here is my head ; betrayed like Jesus Christ, if I must 
die as He did, at any rate, I shall die a Pope." 
Thereupon Sciarra Colonna tore him from his throne, 
struck him in the face with his iron gauntlet, and 
would have killed him on the spot, had not Guillaume 
de Nogaret interfered. Addressing Boniface, the 
Frenchman said : " O thou wretched Pope, consider 
and' behold the kindness of my lord the King of 
France who, for ever so distant as his realms are 
from thine, by me protects and defends thee." 

The people of Anagni, however, recovered at last 
from the stupor i . which they had been plunged by 
the arrival of the French ; they rose, drove away the 
invaders, set the Pope at liberty, and conducted him 
back to Rome. He died shortly after of shame and 
anger at the affronts to which he had been submitted. 
Benedict XI„ who succeeded Boniface on the siege of 
St. Peter, wanted to avenge him by excommunicating 
Nogaret, Colonna, and all those who had assisted 
them. The sentence virtually reached the king ; one 
month after the Bull was fulminated the new Pope 
died, most probably of poison. 

Philip the Fair now contrived to secure the tiara 
for an ecclesiastic of his own choice, and who would 
not hesitate to accept any terms the French monarch 
might think fit to make. This was Bertrand de Got, 
Archbishop of Bordeaux ; he assumed the name of 
Clement V., was consecrated at Lyons, and abandon- 



THE KNIGHTS-TEMPLAR, 149 

ing- Rome, came to settle at Avignon (1308), where 
he was at the disposal and under the thumb, so to 
say, of the king. Then commenced what has been 
called the second Babylonish captivity ; the successors 
of Clement V. remained in Avignon till the year 1376. 
The scandalous bargain thus made between the 
Pope and Philip has been characterized in three 
doggrel lines, which we find quoted by Walsinghafn : 

*' Ecclesise navis titubat, regni quia clavis 
Errat. Rex, Papa, facti sunt unica cappa. 
Hoc faciunt dodes, Pilatus hec, alter Herodes." 

One of the conditions imposed by the king upon the 
Pope was the destruction of the Order of the Temple. 
Why should those warrior-monks be so rich? In the 
time of the Crusades they might have given as an 
excuse that they spent their money in levying troops 
for the delivery of the Holy Land ; but now that 
these expeditions were abandoned, there seemed no 
need for the knights to have in their treasure-house 
150,000 gold florins, besides silver and precious cups, 
vases, and other specimens of goldsmith's work. Then 
was not the order a standing menace against the 
power of the king? They numbered 15,000 knights, 
in addition to an immense number of retainers ; they 
possessed throughout the whole extent of Christendom 
upwards of 10,000 manorial re idences, to say nothing 
of fortresses which could set at defiance the united 
forces of Europe. Finally, their orthodoxy was more 
than doubtful, and they constituted a standing 
scandal to the Church. They worshipped the devil 
under the shape of a cat, they were Mahometans in 



150 ''ROMAN DE FAUVEL.*' 

disguise, they held mysteries which no profane eye 
was allowed to see, and to which no outsider was 
admitted, &c., &c. It would be perhaps rash to deny 
that the Templars were not uniformly blameless from 
the point of view of morality, and that their religious 
opinions were not strictly orthodox ; but confessions 
obtained under the influence of torture are unworthy 
of belief, and it is only too clear now that the sup- 
pression of the Order of the Temple was the result of 
Philip the Fair's covetousness and love of money. 
By a clever stroke of policy he thought of associating 
the nation with him in his design, and summoned 
the States-General at Tours. In the meanwhile 
popular opinion instigated by Philip the Fair had 
been excited against the Papacy, and satirical litera- 
ture was brought in to take the king's part and to 
further his designs. The most signal instance of this 
rather unscrupulous attack is to be found in the 
" Roman de Fauvel," composed by Frangois dc Rues. 
Fauve/, an imaginary being, half-man and half-horse, 
is represented as a kind of idol before which popes, 
cardinals, princes, bishops, monks, are prostrated. 
Every one claims the privilege of torcJier Fairoel 
(aressing Fauvel), and the expression torcher Fauvel, 
coined at that epoch, has remained as the synonym 
of to cabal, to intrigue, to act iinscmpiilously. Fauvel is 
the embodiment of falsehood, pride, and sensuality. 

*' De Fauvel descent Flaterie, 
Qui du monde a la seigneurie, 
Et puis en descent avarice, 
Qui de torcher Fauvel n'est nice, 

Vilenie et vanite, 
Et puis envi et fausete." 



STATES-GENERAL OF I302. 151 

*' From Fauvel proceeds flattery, 
Which exercises the lordship in this world ; 
Thence proceeds also avarice 
Which has no scruple in caressing Fauvel, 

Vileness and vanity, 
And then envy and falsehood." 

Of the condemned Templars the poet says : 

*' Helas ! Helas ! c'est bien raison ; 
Car ils ont, trop longue saison, 
Cette orde vie demenee ; 
Si regnassent plus longuement, 
Crestiente certenement 
S'en fust partout envenimee. " 

** Alas ! alas ! it is quite right (that they should be 
condemned); 
For they have too long 
Led this disgraceful life ; 
If they had reigned for a longer period, 
Christendom certainly 
Would have been thoroughly poisoned.'* 

Thus excited, the deputies to the States-General 
pronounced unanimously the condemnation of the 
unfortunate Templars, and gave to the unscrupulous 
despot the full sanction to seize upon the rich prey 
which he had so long been coveting (May, 1307). 
All the towns of any importance were represented at 
Tours as well as all the prelates and the great 
majority of the nobility. Thus it might be said with 
a certain amount of plausibility that the entire nation 
believed in the guilt of the knights, though at the 
same time the accusation brought against them was 
utterly false and calumnious. But Philip the Fair 
was accustomed to such procedure, and already, five 
years before, when the States-General of 1302 pro- 



152 FIFTY-FOUR KNIGHTS BURNT TO DEATH. 

nounced the deposition of Boniface VIII., they had 
falsified the Papal bull in the most scandalous 
manner with the view of finding a ground for their 
accusations. 

Fifty-four Templars were burnt alive in one day at 
Paris alone, and similar executions took place in all 
the principal provincial towns. The Pope, at the 
council of Vienne (13 12), pronounced the suppression 
of the order throughout Christendom ; their riches 
were to be handed over to the Knights Hospitallers, 
but we need scarcely say that Philip the Fair 
managed to secure a large portion of the spoil. He 
obtained all the coin found in the chief house of 
the order, besides t\vo-thirds of the furniture and of 
the money owing to them, and a considerable amount 
of landed property. 




VIII. 



PHILIP THE FAIR— LOUIS X.— PHILIP V.— CHARLES 

IV. — PHILIP VI. 

(1314-1328.) 

The reign of Philip the Fair was marked, as we have 
already seen, by events of the most extraordinary, and, 
we may almost say, the most revolutionary character. 
The administration of France furnished the king 
with an opportunity of carrying out his scheme of 
reforms, and we are bound to say that although his 
laws were stamped with the mark of despotism, 
some of them, many of them, we should say, mani- 
fested a true idea of the principles of government. 

The Paris parliament existed in an elementary 
form under the reign of Philip Augustus and Saint 
Louis, but it was reserved for Philip the Fair to give 
to it a regular constitution, and make of it a real 
court of justice. By his decree of 1302, he separated 
the functions of the parliament into three classes, 
according as they were of a political, judicial, or 
financial nature. The first belonged to the Council of 
State {Grand Conseil ox Conseil EU'oii) ; the second fell 
under the cognizance of the Parliament properly 
so called ; the third pertained to the Court of Ac- 



154 THE PARIS PARLIAMENT. 

counts (Co^ir des comptes). With reference to the 
parliament, it was definitely constituted by virtue 
of the ordinances of 1291 and 1302, and comprised 
three distinct courts {chainbres) :— i. The CJiaiiibre des 
requetes judged the cases immediately brought before 
the parliament. 2. The Chambre des enqiietes decided 
upon the cases -about which an appeal had been 
made to the parliament. 3. The Grand' Chambre, or 
Chambre des plaidoiries judged the cases which had 
been previously examined in the Chambre des enquetes. 
In addition to the Paris parliament, Philip the 
Fair had also thought of establishing a special one 
at Toulouse for the trial of cases amenable to Roman 
law ; but the resistance which he encountered from 
the local authorities obliged him to give up his plan, 
and to be satisfied with annexing to the Paris 
parliament an additional Chambre des enquetes re- 
served for the examination of cases which could not 
be judged according to the principles of feudal 
legislation. The parliament was to meet twice a 
year for sessions of two months each, in the building 
called Palais de la cite, and subsequently known as 
Palais de justice. The Normandy* Exchequer was 
retained by Philip the Fair ; founded at the time of 
the Norman invasion, it had been, up to the four- 
teenth century, a feudal court peculiar to the 
province, meeting twice a year, at Easter and 
Michaelmas, and holding its sessions alternately at 
Rouen, and Caen. King Philip directed that the 
sittings of the Exchequer should take place for the 
future at Rouen exclusively, under the presidency of 
magistrates appointed by the Crown. Finally, Philip 



JEAN BURIDAN. 155 

IV. regularized the grands jours of Champagne held 
at Troyes, and which used to meet for the trial of 
cases which the ordinary tribunals were unable to deal 
with. 

We have now come to the last years of an eventful 
reign, and it remains for us to notice two episodes 
of a tragic character which marked its conclusion. 

In his poem entitled " Le grand Testament," the 
celebrated Villon says : 

" Semblablement ou est la royne 
Qui commanda que Buridan 
Fut jette en ung sac en Seine." 

This queen was Marguerite de Bourgogne, wife of 
Louis le Hutin, who, being found guilty of adultery, 
was strangled in her prison in 1 3 14, by order of the 
king. As for Buridan, whether he was tied into 
a sack or not and cast into the Seine, is still a matter 
of doubt, the probability being that the whole episode 
is nothing but an absurd tale. At any rate, he lived 
to be one of the most distinguished professors in the 
University of Paris. It is certain, however, that the 
three daughters-in-law of Philip the Fair led a most 
scandalous life, and that the Tower of Nesle in Paris 
was the scene of their crimes. Having been found 
out, they were arrested and sent to prison. One of 
them, as, we have just said, was strangled, another 
committed suicide, and the third was ultimately taken 
back by her husband. Their accomplices, Gautier 
and Philip d'Aunay, were flayed alive on the Place 
de Greve. 

The unfortunate Knights-Templar supply us with 



156 LOUIS Y., LE HUTIN. 

materials for the last act of the tragedy. The 
principal dignitaries of the order had been lingering 
in prison for the space of six years, and seemed 
to be forgotten. In 13 13, having been summoned 
before a pontifical court, they were condemned to 
seclusion for life. The Grand Master, and another 
visitor or master, then suddenly recanted all their 
previous confessions and avowals, says Guillaume de 
Nangis, to the astonishment of every one. The 
cardinals who sat on the commission delivered them 
over to the custody of the Provost of Paris, till a 
more serious and thorough deliberation had taken 
place the next day ; but as soon as the noise of that 
incident had reached the ears of the king, who 
happened to be in his ro}'al palace, having com- 
municated with his friends and ivitJioiit summoning 
the clej'ks, by a prudent advice, in the evening of the 
same day, he had both Jacques de Molay, the Grand 
Master, and the other visitor, burnt to death on the 
same pile in a small island of the Seine, between the 
royal garden and the church of the Hermit friars 
of Saint Augustine. (This island is now the place on 
the Pont-neuf where stands the statue of Henry IV.) 
M. Michelet, who quotes the narrative of Guillaume 
de Nangis, adds : " This execution, done without the 
knowledge of the judges, was evidently a murder." 
The expression is not too strong. 

Philip the Fair was only forty-six when he died, 
November 29, 1 3 14, leaving three sons who reigned 
successively. 

Louis X., le Hutin (the quarrelsome), occupied the 
throne only for the space of eighteen months (13 14- 



ENGUERRAND DE MARIGNY. 157 

1 3 16), and his tenure of office was marked, in the 
first place, by an abortive expedition against Flanders, 
and in the second by a feudal reaction which very 
nearly destroyed the work of Philip the Fair. The 
barons were particularly anxious to ruin the a//er 
ego of the late king, Enguerrand de Marigny ; he 
was accused on the most futile charges, by Charles 
de Valois, brother of the late king, a violent and 
meddlesome prince, who put himself forward as the 
champion of the barons and the avenger of tottering 
feudalism. It would not have been difficult for 
Marigny to defend himself, had he been allowed to 
do so ; but his death was a matter determined upon 
beforehand, so they brought forward against him 
a charge from which there was no escape — that of 
sorcery, and he was hanged in Paris at Monfaucon. 
His only crime was that of having been Philip the 
Fair's confidential adviser. Pierre de Latilly, Chan- 
cellor of France, and Raoul de Presle, Advocate- 
General, were put to the torture ; Nogaret was ruined. 
This was the last effort of the feudal system ; it died 
hard, it died fighting, but its days were over. 

Louis X. left only one daughter : five months after 
his death, his widow, Clemence of Hungary, had a 
son, John, who only lived eight days. Was the 
Princess Jeanne to succeed to the throne ? No, said 
the Salic law, and accordingly the States-General pro- 
claimed as king Philip, brother of " the quarrelsome " 
monarch, who thus became Philip V., surnamed le 
Long. He was called to the throne in 13 16, after 
a regency of five or six months. It is curious that 
whereas the right of inheriting fiefs was recognized 



158 THE SALIC LAW. 

by feudal law for women, it was distinctly forbidden 
in the case of Salic domains, and the question has 
arisen whether this measure was a wise one or not. 
M. Duruy remarks (" Histoire de France," voL i. p. 
382), that several royal houses, that of Austria, for 
instance, owed their greatness to the opposite principle. 
The Salic law, excellent as it was to insure the in- 
dependence of a small state, was less necessary for 
a powerful monarchy. France was too important 
to be absorbed by any power, and if we suppose a 
foreign prince acquiring it by virtue of a marriage, 
he would have, on the contrary, extended it, by the 
addition of his own domains. What would have 
happened, for instance, if Edward III. of England 
had come to the throne of France, instead of PhiHp 
V. — Edward, essentially French by his mother, his 
habits, his language, and part of his possessions, since 
he was Duke of Guienne, and Count of Ponthieu ? 
The consequence would have been that, instead of 
the mere countship of Valois, Guienne, Ponthieu, 
and, for a time, England, would have become part 
of the royal domains. A few French barons might 
have had to yield to English ones, but France would 
have been spared the hundred years' war. England 
has never had but foreign kings — Saxons, Danes, 
Normans, Angevines, Welsh, Scotch, Dutch, Ger- 
mans ; she is none the worse for that. 

The reigns of Philip V. (13 16-1322), and of Charles 
IV. (i 322-1328), were not remarkable for military 
exploits, but for administrative measures of the 
greatest importance. Laws for the organization 
of the Court of Accounts, for the improvement of 



REFORM OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 159 

trade and commerce, &c., were enacted. Philip V. 
even planned a scheme for the reform of the monetary 
system, and the unity of weights and measures. By 
granting to commoners patents of nobility, Philip 
v., following the example of Philip the Bold, re- 
newed the aristocratic element of the nation, en- 
sured its duration, but, at the same time, destroyed 
its spirit. Under the feudal regime^ nobility was 
one of the attributes of military fiefs; when it sunk, as 
we have already said, to the humiliating condition 
of a commodity which might be obtained for ready 
money, its original and distinctive quality completely 
disappeared. 

At an epoch like the one of which we are treating, 
when the whole of society seems in a state of transform- 
ation, it is natural that a great amount of anxiety 
should manifest itself, and that deeds of violence 
should frequently occur. The Jews and the lepers 
fell under suspicion, and crimes were ascribed to 
them which, utterly groundless as they were, became 
a reality in the minds of ignorant and prejudiced 
people. It is easy to understand why the disorder of 
the finances, the debased character of the coinage, 
and the various fiscal measures introduced by Philip the 
Fair should have irritated the nation against the Jews. 
Nor is it more astonishing that the terrible mortality 
resulting from misery and imperfect sanitary rules 
should have made the unfortunate lepers suspected 
of contemplating the destruction of the population. 
A plot formed between the Jews and the lepers was 
seriously supposed to exist ; the Jews were the 
instigators and the lepers their agents. The Lord 



100 ;jfEWS AND LEPERS. 

of Parthenay, says a chronicler, wrote to the king 
that a certain tall leper, seized on his estates, had 
confessed having received from a rich Jew some 
money and some drugs. These were composed of 
human blood, urine, and consecrated wafers. The 
whole, thoroughly mixed up, dried and pounded, 
was placed in small bags, fastened to weights, and 
thrown into wells and fountains. The same chronicler 
reports having seen one of these bags ; a leper 
woman who was passing by, fearing to be caught, 
threw behind her a bag tied with a string, which 
was immediately brought before a judge. Being 
opened, it was found to contain the head of a snake, 
the feet of a toad, and some woman's hair saturated 
with a black and stinking liquor. The whole, cast 
into the fire, did not burn — a sure proof that it was 
some deadly poison. Excited by such terrible 
stories, the people rose against the Jews and the 
lepers, and a great many of them were put to 
death. 

Nor must we forget a fresh rising of the Pastouremix 
(1320). As in the days of Saint Louis a number of 
poor people, shepherds, peasants, assembled them- 
selves together with the intention, they asserted, of 
going to the Holy Land, and recovering it from the 
infidels. Led by an unfrocked priest and a monk 
they marched into Paris, committing on their way 
all kinds of violence. At the Chatelet the provost 
wanted to prevent them from entering ; they threw 
him headlong from the top of the stairs ; they went off 
then to the Pre-aux-clercs, where they drew them- 
selves in battle array. Marching, finally, out of Paris, 



CHARLES LE BEL. l6l 

they proceeded southwards till they came to Toulouse. 
There they were put to flight ; batches of twenty or 
thirty were sent to the gallows at a time ; the others 
dispersed and gave up their vain attempt. 

Philip the Fair was carried off by death at the early 
age of forty-six ; Louis le Hutin at twenty-seven ; 
Philip the Long at twenty-eight ; Charles the Fair at 
thirty-four — all in the prime of life. Was this a 
visitation from heaven on the family of the remorse- 
less king who had insulted Boniface VI I L, perhaps 
poisoned Benedict XL, and burnt the Templars 
alive ? The common people thought so, and saw 
with a kind of satisfaction the end of a line of kings 
whose latest representatives had brought such scandal 
upon the Crown of France. 

About Charles IV. himself (Charles le Bel, 1322- 
1328) there is little to be said. The great object of 
his life was to get money, and with this aim in view 
he had recourse to all sorts of tricks and con- 
trivances ; the coinage was debased, the Jews were 
plundered, and on the faith of his promise to organize 
a Crusade, he obtained from the clergy the equivalent 
of four years' tithes. Export duties were levied on 
all goods, public offices were put up for sale, and 
those who had received gratuitously their appoint- 
ment to certain posts, that, for instance, of keeper 
of the seals, were obliged either to give them up or 
to pay a specified sum fixed by the king. Philip V 
had issued a decree strictly forbidding the alienation 
of Crown lands. Charles IV. compelled the owners 
of such lands to restore not only the value of these 
lands, but the interest dating from the time of 



l62 SEVERITY OF THE PARIS PARLIAMENT. 

purchase. A poem, composed about that time, and 
called '' Baudouin de Sebourc," shows what the 
general feeling was about money and the lust of 
riches. " What is money " {argent), says the author, 
" and why was it thus named } " The answer does 
not show a deep acquaintance with etymology, but 
it is an amusing proof of the irritation then existing 
against misers and the precursors of Shylock. 

" Un deable d'enfer le fist argent nomme ; 
Car il art tout le monde, si Ions qu'en set aller, 
N'est si petit enfes, c'est legier a prouver, 
S'on li donne un denier, qui n'en laist le plourer." 

" A clerk from hell caused it to be named money, 

For it consumes (L. ardere) the whole world, so far as you can go ; 

And there is not so small a child (this is easily proved) 

Who does not leave off crying, provided you give him a penny." 

Strange to say, the Paris Parliament was no 
respecter of persons, but sent to the gallows barons 
as if they were mere commoners. This was the case 
with Jourdain de Lille, lord of Casaubon, who, 
although guilty of eighteen capital crimes, had been 
forgiven by the king. Persisting in his career of 
wickedness, he was summoned to appear before the 
court of Parliament. He began by killing the 
official who delivered the message to him, and then 
entered Paris with an escort of nobles and lords 
from Aquitaine. Notwithstanding this piece of im- 
pertinence, meant to strike the government with awe, 
Jourdain de Lille was seized, dragged to the gallows 
at a horses tail, and despatched without further 
ceremony ; and yet he was nephew of the Pope, and 



THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR, 163 

Strenuous efforts had been made by the whole French 
nobility to obtain once more his pardon. 

Charles IV. favoured the revolution which in 
England ended in the dethronement of Edward IL, 
and he received the homage of young Edward III. 
for the provinces of Guienne and Ponthieu ; he did 
not live long enough, however, to profit by that 
revolution. He died nearly at the same time as 
the English monarch, leaving as regent of the king- 
dom Philip de Valois, grandson of Philip the Bold. 
The question of succession to the throne of France 
was a difficult one to solve. Supposing that the 
widow of Charles IV. should be confined of a 
daughter, to whom would that succession belong — 
to Philip de Valois, or to Edward III. of England, 
who was grandson of Philip the Fair by his mother 
Isabeau ? The English put forth their claims in 
favour of Edward on the ground that if, by virtue 
of the Salic law, Isabeau was precluded from reign- 
ing over France, no law whatever extended that 
prohibition to her son. The argument on the French 
side was this : Isabeau could not transmit a right 
which she did not herself possess ; and, besides, even 
if the principle laid down by the English were 
admitted, the throne would belong, not to Edward, 
but to the son of the Duchess of Burgundy, daughter 
of Philip V. The Hundred Years' War, as it is 
generally called, had its origin in the difficulty of 
solving this problem. 

Philip de Valois made himself popular during his 
regency by certain measures designed for the public 
benefit, so that when the queen dowager had been 



164 REBELLION IN FLANDERS. 

confined of a daughter, he ascended the throne and 
was anointed king at Reims without much opposi- 
tion (May 29, 1328). On the 25th of May following 
he arrested and sent to the gallows Remy, the 
treasurer of Charles IV. 

Louis, Count of Flanders, was at that time engaged 
in putting down a rebellion which had broken out 
amongst the inhabitants of the western part of his 
domains, chiefly at Bruges and in the neighbourhood. 
He was present at the consecration of Philip de 
Valois, and begged for his assistance against the 
rebels. The King of France readily complied with 
the wishes of his vassal, and the 7'endezvo2is of the 
army was fixed at Arras on the festival of St. 
Magdalen. Out of rivalry against Bruges, Ghent 
sided with the count ; but sixteen thousand Flemings 
marched upon Cassel and pitched their tents on the 
summit of the hill where that town is situated ; they 
had hoisted a huge banner, on which was painted a 
cock with the motto : 

** Quand ce coq ici chantera, 
Le roi trouve {ihe found, i.e., pretended king) ci entrera." 

They occupied an unassailable position. In order 
to compel them to leave it, Philip se.nt some forces, 
which laid waste the territory of Bruges. The leader 
of the rebels, named Zanekin (Johnny-kin, little 
John), not being able to restrain the ardour of his 
men, determined upon offering battle to the French ; 
but he made use, in the first place, of a stratagem 
which would enable him to judge how far they were 
prepared, and whether the victory which the Flemings 



BATTLE OF CASSEL. 165 

were confident of gaining would be an easy one. 
Disguising himself as a fishmonger, he penetrated 
into the French camp, and found the leaders and 
barons enjoying themselves as if no danger was near 
at hand. The Flemings took advantage of this, and 
rushed upon the French camp. It was three o'clock 
in the afternoon ; the knights were engaged in 
playing at dice, and the soldiers were resting around 
the heaps of forage, laughing and telling humorous 
anecdotes. The king, who had just dined and was 
enjoying his siesta, fortunately received from his 
confessor news that the camp was being attacked. He 
got on horseback half armed, and the knights rallied 
around him. The niarsJials of the army were in 
readiness ; they bore the first brunt, and gave time 
for the main body to come up. The incidents which 
had formerly taken place at Mons-en-Puelle were 
now repeated. The Flemish showed exactly the 
same hurry, and the French the same want of fore- 
thought. 

" And on a day they of the garrison of Cassel de- 
parted out to the intent to have discomfited the king 
and all his host. And they came privily, without any 
noise, in three batayles well ordered ; whereof the 
first batayle took the way to the king's tents, and it 
was a fair grace that the king had not been taken, for 
he was at supper, and all his company, and thought 
nothing of them ; and the other batayle took the strait 
way to the tents of the King of Behaygne (Bohemia)^ 
and in manner they found him m like case ; and the 
third batayle went to the tents of the Earl of Hainault, 
and in likewise had near taken him. These hosts 



1 66 DEFEAT OF THE FLEMINGS. 

came so peaceably to the tents, that with much pain 
they of the host could awe them, whereby all the 
lords and their people had been slain, and the more 
grace of God had not been ; but in manner by miracle 
of God these lords discomfited all three batayles, each 
batayle all by itself, all in one hour. In such wise, that 
out of sixteen thousand Flemings there escaped never 
a person, captains and all were slain. And the king 
and lords of France knew not one of another, nor 
what they had done, till all was finished and atchieved ; 
for they, in three sundry parties, one from another ; 
but as for the Flemings, there was not one left alive, 
but all lay dead on heaps, one upon another, in the 
said three sundry places." ^ 

The fact is, that either from prudence or pride of 
displaying their accoutrements, the Flemings, though 
all infantry, had taken into their heads to wear the 
heavy armour usually worn by cavalry troops. They 
were well protected no doubt, but could not move. 
The Count of Flanders, on his return home, put to death 
ten thousand more of the rebels in three days. Philip 
de Valois came back to France followed by fifteen 
hundred hostages. " I have worked for you," said he, 
proudly to the Count, " I have worked at my own ex- 
pense, and at that of my barons ; I restore to you 
your estates conquered back and in peace ; look to it 
that justice be kept there, and that I be not obliged to 
return on account of any failure on your part ; for if I 
am obliged to return, it will be your loss and my 
profit." 

These words commended themselves so thoroughly to 

^ Froissart. 



FROISSART. 167 

the attention of the Count of Flanders that he estab- 
lished in his dominions the reign of terror — inquests, 
confiscations, tortures of every kind were the order of 
the day ; the rebellious cities lost their privileges and 
were dismantled. The military exploits of Philip VI. 
seemed, even in the eyes of the English, to confirm his 
pretensions as the lawful King of France. Edward 
III. came over to Paris, did homage for the Duchy of 
Guienne, and returned home marvelling at the high 
state of the Court of France. Surrounded by an 
array of kings, princes, and barons, Philip gave a series 
of splendid entertainments, which, if they ruined the 
country, secured for the monarch the reputation of 
being the greatest sovereign in Christendom. 

Wars and tournaments, festivities and deeds of high 
emprise, treaties and marriages ; — what writer would be 
found to celebrate worthily the /as^i of the decaying 
Middle Ages? Villehardouin and Joinville had sung 
of the Crusades, the chronicles of Saint Denis origi- 
nated, as some suppose, by Suger, were a kind of 
official record of events ; but it needed some poetical 
imagination to delineate the life and civilization of the 
fourteenth century. Froissart presented himself, and 
has won immortality, thanks to one of the most re- 
markable chronicles on record. Gifted with a real 
passion for observing, knowing and relating all that 
was worth attention, we fancy we can see him travel- 
ling from spot to spot, making friends everywhere by 
his agreeable manners, his liv^ely temperament, his 
talent as a poet, and availing himself of the otiu7n 
cum digiiitate which he enjoyed for the purpose of 
taking notes of all the deeds of valour and chivalry 



l68 FROISSART. 

which were performed throughout the battlefields of 
Europe. His own declaration to that effect is quite 
characteristic : 

" Now consider you who have read my book, or 
who read it now, or purpose reading it, or who will 
hear it read, consider, I say, how I can have known or 
collected so many facts of which I treat, and which I 
propose in so many parts ; and, to inform you of the 
truth, I began early, at the age of twenty ; I likewise 
came into the world with high deeds and adventures ; 
in these, also, I took more delight than in any other 
things. ... I travelled throughout the greater part of 
Christendom, and wherever I went I enquired of 
ancient knights and squires who had taken part in 
deeds of arms, and knew how to speak properly of 
them, and also of certain trustworthy heralds, with 
the view of verifying and justifying all these matters. 
Thus it is that I have collected this high and noble 
history . . . and, by the grace of God, I shall continue 
it as long as I live ; for the more I am in it, and the 
more I work at it, the more it pleases me ; for just as 
the gentle knight or squire who loves arms becomes 
perfect by persevering and continuing in the same, so 
I become apt and I enjoy the more I work and toil, 
on this matter." 

The reader must not seek in the pages of Froissart 
for that spirit of patriotism which imparts to history 
its highest value, and makes it so instructive. Although 
using the French tongue as the medium through which 
to address the public, Froissart cannot be called a 
French chronicler ; nay, it is almost a subject of as- 
tonishment that he did not show greater partiality for 



FROISSART. 



169 



the English. The fact is, he was the historian of chi- 
valry, not of one single nation, and provided he could 
record the catastrophes of tournaments, battles, or 
other such daring exploits, his motto was : 

" Tros Rutulusve fuat, nullo discrimine habebo. " 

It may further be remarked, in connection with Frois- 




FROISSART. 



sart, that if all the splendours of feudal society rev^ive 
in his pages, yet they are the splendours of an order 
of things on the verge of decay. Villehardouin and 
Joinville described the power of chivalry ; Froissart 
gives us its mere brilliancy, its romance, if we may say 
so. 



170 SIR JOHN BOURCHIER ON HISTORY. 

We shall have many an extract to quote from him 
whom M. Michelet designates as the Walter Scott of 
the Middle Ages. By way of conclusion to the pre- 
sent chapter we cannot do better than transcribe a 
paragraph from his English translator, Sir John 
Bourchier, Lord Berners : 

"The most profitable thing in the world for the 
institution of the human life is history. The con- 
tinual reading thereof maketh young men equal in 
prudence to old men, and to old fathers stricken in 
age it ministereth experience of things. More, it 
yieldeth private persons worthy of dignity, rule, and 
governance ; it compel leth the emperors, high rulers, 
and governors to do noble deeds, to the end they may 
obtain immortal glory ; it exciteth, moveth, and 
stirreth the strong hardy warriors for the great laud 
they have after they be dead, promptly to go in hand 
with great and hard perils, in defence of their country; 
and it prohibiteth reprovable persons to do mischie- 
vous deeds, for fear of infamy and shame." 

If such be the uses of history, what a fund of moral 
instruction can be obtained from the events of that 
tragic period which, beginning with the reign of 
Philip VI. and ending with that of Charles VII., 
brought France and England as bitter enemies on the 
battle-field, and known by the name of t/ie Hundred 
Years' Wai I 



IX. 



PHILIP VI. (CONCLUDED) — THE HUNDRED YEARS' 

WAR. 

(132B-I350.) 

The Hundred Years' War began, it may be said, in 
Flanders. Philip VI., who was constantly endeavour- 
ing to bring Edward III. into trouble, and to check 
the power of England, had for a long time sys- 
tematically stirred up the Scotch against the English, 
and, so far as it was possible for him, helped them in 
their attempt to assert their independence. After a 
protracted contest, Edward was successful, and having 
defeated the Scotch, he immediately set to work to 
find an opportunity of attacking France. That oppor- 
tunity soon presented itself. 

Robert, prince of the royal blood by his marriage 
with one of the daughters of Charles IV., claimed the 
countship of Artois, which was retained by his aunt, 
and after her decease, by her daughters. In order to 
justify his pretensions, he forged certain documents, 
and bribed false witnesses to give evidence in his 
favour. The lawsuit resulting from this affair showed 
that Robert had in all probability poisoned his aunt 
and one of his cousins. Condemned bv the court of 



172 THE BREWER ARTEVELDT. 

peers to lose his domains and to banishment for 
life (1332), Robert sought refuge in Brabant, and 
with the view of avenging himself, he practised cer- 
tain incantations which were to end in the death of 
John, the son of the King of France. This new 
misdeed was discovered, and would have resulted in 
a fresh trial on the ground of sorcery. Now in those 
days a person convicted of that supposed crime was 
invariably put to death. Thoroughly frightened, 
Robert disguised himself, went over to England, 
presented himself at the court of Edward III., and 
urged him to go to war against France. 

The Count of Flanders, Louis de Nevers, vassal, 
as such, of Philip VL, had about this time managed, 
unfortunately, to excite the animosity of his subjects 
by extorting money out of them, depriving them 
of their privileges, and punishing severely all those 
who offered any resistance. Commercial interests 
bound England and Flanders closely together, • so 
that the policy of both countries was identical. Led 
by a popular chief, the Brewer Arteveldt, the Flemings 
drove away the Count Louis, and invoked the help 
of Edward III. (1336). They would have felt some 
scruple in revolting against their suzerain, the King of 
France ; accordingly Arteveldt persuaded Edward to 
assume the title which he had often himself claimed 
as his own ; and thus in attacking Philip VL, they 
might say they were taking up arms against a pre- 
tender and usurper. 

The war in Flanders was fruitless ; if the French 
were ignominiously defeated in a naval engagement 
at the Sluys, they proved more fortunate at Saint 




Royal Domain L 

Possessions of the King of England _ 
Feudal Possessions 



y^ 






THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY, 1 73 

Omer, and Edward met with a check before Tournay 
(1340). A truce was concluded, and when hostilities 
recommenced, it was Brittany and no longer Flanders 
which supplied the pretext. As for Arteveldt, he came 
to a tragic end. Seeing himself on the point of being 
discomfited, he attempted to give the sovereignty of 
Flanders to the young Prince of Wales, thus de- 
frauding the Count of Flanders of his rights ; but 
his scheme failed, and he was massacred at Ghent by 
the populace in 1345. 

The succession to the Duchy of Brittany must now 
be described, as it led to a renewal of hostilities between 
France and England. The Duke, John III., had died 
childless, leaving a niece and a brother. The niece, 
daughter of an elder brother, had married Charles of 
Blois, a prince of the royal family of France ; she 
claimed the Duchy as her lawful inheritance, and had 
on her side Philip VI., and the French portion of the 
province. The competitor, John IV. de Montfort, 
brother of the late duke, was supported by the 
Breton Bretonnants and the King of England. M. 
Michelet has given us in his history of France a 
curious portrait of Charles of Blois, the nominee of 
Philip ; it is worth quoting here : 

" He went to confession morning and evening, and 
heard four or five masses daily. He never travelled 
except accompanied by a chaplain, who carried about 
with him some bread, wine, and water, in order to 
celebrate mass on the way. If he saw a priest pass by, 
he jumped from his horse into the mud. He several 
times went barefooted in the snow on a pilgrimage to 
the shrine of Saint Yves, the great saint of Brittany. He 



174 CHARLES OF BLOIS. 

used to put pebbles In his shoes, would not allow the 
vermin to be removed from his hair-cloth, fastened 
round his waist three ropes with knots which entered 
into his flesh so that it was piteous to behold. When 
he said his prayers, he struck his breast so furiously 
that he became pale and then as green. One day he 
stopped within two yards of the enemy and ran a 
great danger, because he wanted to hear mass. At the 
siege of Ouimper, his soldiers were on the point of 
being overtaken by the tide * If it is the will of God/ 
said he, ' the tide can do us no harm.' The town was 
taken bv storm, and a g^ood number of the inhabi- 
tants put to the sword. Charles de Blois went first to 
the cathedral to thank God. He then stopped the 
massacre." 

The city of Nantes had been besieged by the 
French ; the Count de Montfort, made prisoner, was 
taken to Paris, and shut up in the tower of the 
Louvre. His wife then gave proof of an energy and 
determination which cannot be praised too much, and 
Froissart seems to take delight in relating her deeds 
of courage and of daring. The episodes of the siege 
of Rennes and of Hennebon may be appropriately 
quoted as instances both of Jeanne de Montfort's 
intrepidity and of the chronicler's picturesque talent. 

" When the sweet season of summer approached, 
the lords of France, and divers others, drew towards 
Bretayne with a great host, to aid Sir Charles de 
Blois to recover the residue of the Duchy of Bretayne. 
They found Sir Charles de Blois in Xantes ; then 
they determined to lay siege to Rennes ; the Countess 
of ^lountfort had well prevented the matter, and had 



SIEGE OF HENNEBON. 1 75 

set there for captain Sir William of Cadudall Breton. 
The lords of France came thither, and did much 
trouble with assaults ; howbeit they within defended 
themselves so valiantly, that their enemies lost more 
than they won. . . . When the city of Rennes was 
given up, the burgesses made their homage and fealty 
to the lord, Charles of Blois ; then he was counselled 
to go and lay siege to Hennebon. . . . When the 
countess and her company understood that the 
Frenchmen were coming to lay siege to the town of 
Hennebon, then it was commanded to sound the 
watch-bell alarm, and every man to be armed and 
draw to their defence. . . . The countess herself wore 
harness on her body, and rode on a good courser from 
street to street, desiring her people to make good de- 
fence ; and she caused damosels and other women to 
cut short their kyrtels, and to carr\' stones and pots 
full of chalk to the walls to be cast down to their 
enemies. 

" This lady did then a hardy enterprise ; she 
mounted up to the height of a tower, to see how the 
Frenchmen were ordered without ; she saw that all the 
lords, and all other people of the host, were all gone 
out of their field to the assault : then she took ag^ain 
her courser, armed as she was, and caused 300 men 
on horseback to be ready, and she went with them to 
another gate where there was no assault ; she issued 
out and her company, and dashed into the French 
lodgings, and cut down tents, and set fire to their 
lodgings ; she found no defence there, but a certain 
of varlets and boys, who ran awa\'. When the lords 
of France looked behind them, and saw their lodgings 



176 TRUCE OF 1346. 

a-fire, and heard the cry and noise there, they re- 
turned to the field crying, ' Treason ! treason ! ' so 
that all the assault was left. When the countess saw 
that, she drew together her company, and when she 
saw she could not enter again into the town without 
great damage, she took another way, and went to the 
castle of Brest, which was not far thence. . . . They 
of the town (of Hennebon) wist not where the 
countess was become, whereof they were in great 
trouble, for it was five days or they heard any 
tidings. The countess did so much at Brest, that she 
got together a five hundred spears, and then about 
midnight she separated from Brest, and by the sun 
rising, she came along by the one side of the host, 
and came to one of the gates of Hennebon, the which 
was opened for her, and therein she entered, and all 
her company, with great noise of trumpets. . . ." ^ 
At last a succour from the English caused the siege 
to be raised. 

The Kings of France and of England were gradu- 
ally led to take an active personal share in the war ; 
Edward III. came to Brittany in 1342, and was 
present at the sieges of Vannes, Rennes, and Nantes. 
In the meanwhile John of Normandy gathered to- 
gether an army of upwards of forty thousand men, 
besides a large number of knights and barons. The 
forces met at Malestroit, but the deficiency of pro- 
visions and the inclemency of the weather had caused 
such an amount of sickness on both sides, that the 
Papal legates obtained (January 19, 1343) a truce 
which was to last till Michaelmas, 1346. 

^ Book i. caps. 79, 80. 



DEATH OF CLISSON. 177 

The treachery of which the French king was guilty 
towards Clisson and fourteen other Breton lords 
contributed much to strengthen Edward's cause in 
France. Clisson had been a prisoner in England and 
had been handsomely treated — too handsomely, per- 
haps. It is said that the Earl of Salisbury, in order 
to avenge himself on Edward for seducing his wife, 
informed Philip of a secret agreement concluded 
between his master and Clisson. The King of France 
immediately invited the fifteen Bretons to a tourna- 
ment, had them arrested and put to death without a 
trial. The brother of one of them, who happened to 
be a priest, was exposed on a scaffold and stoned to 
death by the mob. A short time after the King of 
France despatched in the same summary way three 
barons of Normandy ; he tried in vain to seize upon 
the Count d'Harcourt w^ho contrived, however, to 
escape, and proved as useful to the English as Robert 
d'Artois had been. 

Edward resolved upon avenging the death of 
Clisson, and the war recommenced more determinately 
than before. The Earl of Derby landed in Guienne, 
took possession of La Reole and Port Sainte Marie, 
and advanced as far as Angouleme. The King of 
England had collected a powerful fleet and wished to 
penetrate into Southern France, but a storm drove 
him back to the British Channel, and acting on the 
advice of the Count d'Harcourt, he disembarked with 
an army of upwards of thirty thousand men at La 
Hougue Saint Vast on July 22, 1346, and after having 
made himself master of a few small towns, he arrived 
under the walls of Caen on the 26th of the same month. 



178 THE ENGLISH IN FRANCE. 

"When they of the town who were ready in the 
field saw these three batayles coming in good order, 
with their banners and standards waving in the wind, 
and the archers, the which they had not been accus- 
tomed to see, they were sore afraid, and fled away 
toward the town without any order or good array, for 
all that the constable could do ; then the Englishmen 
pursued them eagerly. When the constable and the 
Earl Tankerville saw that, they took a gate at the 
entry and saved themselves and certain with them, for 
the Englishmen were entered into the town ; some of 
the knights and squires of France, such as knew the 
way to the castle went thither, and the captain there 
received them all, for the castle was large. The 
Englishmen in the chase slew many, for they took 
none to mercy," ^ "" 

At last the citizens took courage, defended them- 
selves in their houses, and upwards of five hundred 
Englishmen had been killed or wounded, when 
Edward ordered the massacre to cease, promising 
quarter to every one. Louviers, Pont de I'Arche, 
Poissy, Vernon, and Saint Germain fell into the power 
of the English who came within sight of Paris having 
burnt Bourg la Reine and Saint Cloud. 

In the meanwhile Philip had got together a large 
army, and was marching against the enemy. Edward 
re-crossed the Seine at Poissy, and retreated towards 
the district of Ponthieu, wishing to put himself in 
safety behind the Somme. All the fords of this 
river were in the hands of the French, and the one at 
Blanquetaque, more especially, was defended by one 

^ Froissart, chapter 124. 



BATTLE OF CRESSY, 179 

thousand men-at-arms and five thousand Genoese 
archers. Edward forced his way through it, but seeing 
that he could not retreat any further, he halted, pre- 
pared for a battle and drew up his forces on the slope 
of a hillock near Cressy (August 27, 1346). 

" The Englishmen, who were in three batayles, 
lying on the ground to rest them, as soon as they saw 
the Frenchmen approach, they rose upon their feet, 
fair and easily, without any haste, and arranged their 
batayles. . . The lords and knights of France came 
not to the assembly together, in good order, for some 
came before, and some came after, in such haste and 
evil order, that one of them did trouble another. 
When the French king saw the Englishmen, his blood 
changed, and he said to his marshals : 'Make the 
Genoese go before, and begin the battle in the name 
of God and Saint Denis.' There were of the Genoese 
cross-bows about a fifteen thousand, but they were so 
weary of going a-foot that day, a six leagues, armed 
with their cross-bows, that they said to their con- 
stables : ' We be not well ordered to fight this day, 
for we be not in the case to do any great deed of arms; 
we have more need of rest.' Their words came to the 
Earl of Alengon, who said : ' A man is well at ease 
to be charged with such a sort of rascals, to be faint 
and fail now at most need.' Also the same season 
there fell a great rain and an eclipse, with a terrible 
thunder, and before the rain there came flying over 
both batayles a great number of crows, for fear of the 
tempest coming. Then anon the air began to wax 
clear, and the sun to shine fair and bright, the which 
was right in the Frenchmen's eyes, and on the English- 



l80 THE GENOESE ARCHERS. 

men's backs. . . . The English archers stepped for- 
ward one pace, and let fly their arrows so wholly and 
so thick, that it seemed snow.; when the Genoese 
felt the arrows piercing through heads, arms, and 
breasts, many of them cast down their cross-bows, and 
did cut their strings, and returned discomfited. When 
the French king saw them fly away, he said : ' Slay 
these rascals, for they shall let and trouble us without 
reason.' Then ye should have seen the men-at-arms 
dash in among them, and killed a great number of 
them ; and ever still the Englishmen shot where as 
they saw thicker press. The sharp arrows ran into 
the men-at-arms, and into their horses, and many fell, 
horse and men, amongst the Genoese, and when they 
were down, they could not rise again ; the press was 
so thick that one overthrew another " (book i. chap. 

130)- 

The Genoese fought with considerable determina- 
tion ; but besides the fact that they were tired out by 
a long march, the heavy rain had utterly spoilt the 
strings of their cross-bows, and unfitted them for ser- 
vice. The English archers, more prudent, had 
unfastened theirs, and concealed them in their head- 
dresses {cJiaperons). The order given by King Philip 
to slay the Genoese mercenaries created, as may well 
be imagined, the greatest confusion, and the English 
took advantage of this first incident in the day's 
adventures. One of the most exciting episodes con- 
nected with the battle of Cressy is the one of which 
the old King of Bohemia was the hero: we give it here 
as we find it in Froissart : 

'' The valiant King of Bohemia, called John of 



DEATH OF THE KING OF BOHEMIA, l8l 

Luxemburgh, son to the noble emperor Henry of 
Luxemburgh, for all that he was nigh blind, when he 
understood the order of the batayle, he said to them 
about him : ' Where is the Lord Charles, my son ? ' 
His men said : ' Sir, we cannot tell, we think he be 
fighting ; ' then he said : * Sirs, ye are my men, my 
companions and friends in this journey {journee) ; 
I require you bring me so far forward, that I may 
strike one stroke with my sword.' They said they 
would do his commandment, and to the intent that 
they should not lose him in the press, they tied all 
the reins of their bridles each to other, and set the 
king before to accomplish his desire, and so they went 
on their enemies. The Lord Charles of Bohemia, his 
son, who wrote himself King of Bohemia, and bore 
the arms, he came in good order to the batayle ; but 
when he saw that the matter went awry on their 
party, he departed, I cannot tell you which way. The 
king, his father, was so far forward, that he strake a 
stroke with his sword, yea, and more than four, and 
fought valiantly, and so did his company ; and they 
adventured themselves so forward that they were 
there all slain, and the next day they were found in 
the place about the king, and all their horses tied each 
to other " (ibid.). 

Philip VI. was hurried off the field of battle after 
having experienced a defeat such as had never been 
heard of before. Eleven princes, eighty knights- 
bannerets, twelve hundred knights, and thirty thousand 
soldiers were killed. Accompanied by five gentlemen, 
the King of France arrived during the night before 
the castle of Broye, and knocking at the gates, ex- 



iSz SIEGE OF CALAIS. 

claimed : "Open ! open ! It is the unfortunate King of 
France ! " The next day the communes of Rouen and of 
Beauvais, the retainers of the Archbishop of Rouen, and 
the troops of the Grand Prior of France, knowing what 
had happened, came to take part in the battle ; they 
had lost their way. The English fell upon them and 
put them to the sword. 

Edward had resolved to carry on to a successful 
issue the work so triumphantly begun ; he led his 
army to Calais and besieged the town (September 3, 
1346). The only way to take it was by famine, for the 
walls were strong beyond the possibility of making a 
breach in them. With the prospect of spending several 
months, perhaps the whole winter under the fortifica- 
tions of Calais, the English set to work to build a 
regular town where they settled themselves most 
comfortably, thoroughly provided with, not only the 
necessaries, but the luxuries of life. " There was," says 
Froissart,^ "every thing to sell, and a market place to 
be kept every Tuesday and Saturday for flesh and fish, 
mercery ware, houses for cloth, for bread, wine, and all 
other things necessary, such as came out of England 
or out of Flanders, and they might buy what they 
list" (cap. 133). 

Philip VI. of course resolved to do what he could 
for the relief of Calais, and he set to work to collect 
an army. Unfortunately, from different causes, the 
mustering of the troops took a very long time, and it 
was only in July, 1347, that they were ready ; then all 
the approaches to the town were either impracticable 
from the state of the ground, or occupied by the 
English ; so that the French army had to disperse 



BUST ACHE DE SATNT PIERRE. 183 

after having vainly displayed their banners and stan- 
dards before the unfortunate citizens who, reduced to 
the last extremity, saw themselves obliged to sur- 
render at discretion. Edward required that six of 
the leading citizens should come to his camp in their 
shirts, with halters round their necks, bringing him 
the keys of the castle and of the town, and imploring 
his mercy. Eustache de Saint Pierre, and five friends 
and relatives of his volunteered to plead on behalf of 
their fellow citizens, and went off to tie camp under 
the conduct of Walter de Manny. 

" When Sir Walter presented these burgesses to the 
king, they knelt down and held up their hands and 
said : ' Gentle king, behold here we six, who were 
burgesses of Calais, and great merchants : we have 
brought to you the keys of the town and of the 
castle, and we submit ourselves clearly into your will 
and pleasure, to save the residue of the people of 
Calais, who have suffered great pain. Sir, we beseech 
your grace to have mercy and pity on us, through 
your high nobleness.' Then all the earls and barons, 
and other that were there, wept for pity. The king 
looked felly on them, for greatly he hated the 
people of Calais for the great damages and displea- 
sures they had done him on the sea before. Then he 
commanded their heads to be stricken off; then every 
man required the king for mercy, but he would hear 
no more in that behalf Then Sir Walter de Manny 
said: 'Noble king, for God's sake refrain your 
courage ; you have the name of sovereign nobleness, 
therefore now do not a thing that should blemish 
your renown, nor to give cause to some to speak of 



184 CALAIS AN ENGLISH COLONY. 

you villanously. Every man will say it is a great 
cruelty to put to death such honest persons, who 
by their own will put themselves into your grace to 
save their company.' Then the king uryed (turned) 
away from him, and commanded to send for the 
hangman ; and said : ' They of Calais have caused 
many of my men to be slain, therefore these shall die 
in like wise.' Then the queen, being great with 
child, knelt down, and sore weeping, said : ' Gentle 
sir, since I passed the sea in great peril, I have desired 
nothing of you ; therefore now I humbly require you, 
in the honour of the Son of the Virgin Mary, and for 
the love of me, that ye will take mercy of these six 
burgesses.' The king beheld the queen, and stood 
still in a study a space, and then said : ' Dame, I 
would you had been as now in some other place ; you 
make such request to me that I cannot deny you ; 
therefore I give them to you, to do your pleasure 
with them.' Then the queen caused them to be 
brought into her chamber, and made the halters to be 
taken from their necks, and caused them to be new 
clothed, and gave them their dinner at their leisure ; 
and then she gave each of them six nobles, and made 
them to be brought out of the host in safe-guard, and 
set at their liberty" (cap. 146). 

The Calaisians were turned out of their city except 
a few who renounced their nationality, and preferred 
acknowledging Edward as their king ; Calais became 
an English colony. Edward seemed to be triumphant 
everywhere ; the Scotch had been defeated, and 
Charles de Blois, the ally of the King of France, had 
been made prisoner at the siege of La Roche de 



THE BLACK DEATH. 1 85 

Rien. In the meanwhile the two adversaries were 
equally weary of the war ; Pope Clement VI. offered 
his mediation, and on the 28th of September, 1347, a 
truce was signed which was to last ten months, each 
of the two kings retaining possession of what he 
actually got. 

The plague soon came to add its horrors to those 
entailed by war. The black death, as it was called, 
after having visited the greater part of Europe, 
invaded France. In a great many places, the chroni- 
cler tells us, out of twenty persons, as many as 
eighteen were carried off. The mortality was such in 
the Paris hospital (yHotel-Dieii) that for a long time 
they transported daily five hundred corpses in carts 
to the cemetery of the Innocents. Again on this 
occasion the Jews were accused of poisoning the 
public fountains, they were in many places attacked, 
murdered, or burnt alive. One-third of the whole 
population of Europe died of the plague, and in Paris 
alone eighty thousand persons were fatally struck. 

These dreadful calamities, according to all appear- 
ances endless, had the natural effect of rousing the 
people to a state of religious enthusiasm bordering 
upon frenzy. Hence the Flagellants, who endeavoured 
to appease the wrath of heaven by the most terrible 
acts of self-inflicted mortifications. They bore red 
crosses aloft ; half naked, they scourged themselves 
with whips in which were fastened iron nails, and 
went about singing hymns, of which the following is 
a specimen — 

"Or avant, entre nous tous freres, 
Battons nos charognes bien fort 



l86 PHILIP^ S HOME ADMINISTRATION. 

En remembrant la grant misere 

De Dieu, et sa piteuse moi't, 

Qui fut pris en la gent amere 

Et vendus et trais a tort 

Et bastu sa char {chair) vierge et dere {dear) 

Au nom de ce battons plus fort." 

The Flagellants started from Germany, went to the 
Netherlands, and entered France by Picardy and 
Flanders. They numbered nearly eight hundred thou- 
sand persons at Christmas (1349). They originally 
recruited their numbers from the peasants and the 
common people ; later on they were joined by gen- 
tlemen, noblemen, and even ladies. When the 
danger was over, or thought to be so, the sense of 
gloom and despair gave way to a frantic desire of 
enjoying life, and a thirst for merriment of every 
description. Nothing was seen but festivals, mar- 
riages, and christenings. The royal family set the 
example of such dissipation, and the old king 
married his son's betrothed. Princess Blanche, his 
cousin, only eighteen years of age. The young 
prince took to wife, instead, the heiress of Auvergne 
and Burgundy, whilst the grandson married the 
daughter of the Duke de Bourbon. Philip de Valois 
died soon after (1350). 

If we now turn our attention to the home adminis- 
tration of Philip VI., we find several points which 
deserve to be mentioned here. In the first place, let 
us notice the establishment of the salt tax {gabelle, 
from the German gabe). By virtue of a decree dated 
March 20, 1343, the king created for the benefit of 
the Crown a monopoly of the sale of salt throughout 
the kingdom. Commissioners were appointed whose 



TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS, 187 

business it was to establish stores where every family 
was obliged to supply itself with salt ; a tax was fixed 
at the discretion of the government, and no one was 
allowed to sell the quantity left unused after the 
wants of the family had been fairly and honestly met. 
The salt tax levied temporarily at first, and sup- 
pressed for a time in 1356, was definitely reinstated 
by Charles V., and only done away with in 1790. 
The utter incapacity of Philip de Valois was apparent 
from the reckless deeds to which his foolish prodi- 
gality compelled him to have recourse. He kept 
altering the coinage, creating fresh taxes, and he even 
confiscated the property of the Italian merchants 
settled in France. 

Important territorial acquisitions must likewise be 
noticed. Humbert IL, Count of Vienne, and known 
by the title of Dauphin of Viennois, because the 
family bore a dolphin on their coat of arms, sold his 
domains to Philip for 120,000 florins (1349). One of 
the conditions of the transaction was that the eldest 
son of the King of France should ever henceforth be 
styled Dauphin. The town of Mont pel Her was like- 
wise purchased from the King of Majorca. 




X. 



JOHN II. — THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (CON- 
TINUED) — ETIENNE MARCEL— THE JACQUERIE. 
(1 35.0-1 364.) 

The reign of King John [Jean le Bon) is one of the 
most tragic and eventful in the whole history of Mediae- 
val France. He was in point of character very much 
like his father — brave but violent, lavish in his expen- 
diture, impetuous, and reckless. '' Le Bon'' says M- 
Michelet, " means here the trusting^ the prodigal, the 
careless. No prince, indeed, had ever before him so 
nobly flung away the money of the people. He went 
along, like the man in Rabelais, eating his grapes when 
they were still unripe, and his corn when it was grow- 
ing. He made money of everything — wasting the 
present, drawing upon the future. One might have 
fancied that he did not suppose he would live long in 
France. His great resource was the alteration of the 
coinage ; Philip the Fair and his son, Philip de 
Valois, had had free recourse to this form of bank- 
ruptcy. John cast them all in the shade, and he went 
beyond every bankruptcy, either royal or national, 
that could ever take place." In the course of one 
year no less than eighteen variations took place in 



CHARLES LE MAUVATS. 189 

the value of the coinage ; in fact, the silver mark in a 
few months varied from five livres five sols to eleven 
livres, that is to say, at the rate of cent, for cent. 

Notwithstanding all these arbitrary measures, the 
public exchequer was empty, and, with the view of 
procuring money, John decided upon appealing to 
the nation. The States-General were summoned to 
meet at Paris in 1365, but they produced no result; 
for, although in answer to the numerous complaints 
made by the deputies, some promises were wrung 
from the king, yet we do not find that they came to 
any effect. 

In the meanwhile, a third competitor to the throne 
of France appeared in the person of Charles of 
Navarre, surnamed /e Maiivais, from his turbulence 
and his spirit of intrigue. Grandson of Louis X. on 
his mother's side, Charles le Mauvais might have 
inherited the throne but for the Salic law. Till he 
could see his hopes realized, he claimed Champagne 
and Angoumois. This last province having been be- 
stowed upon the king's favourite, the Constable de 
Lacerda, Charles had him murdered ; thereupon 
John seized the fiefs which the King of Navarre had 
in Normandy, and Charles went over to England 
dreading lest something worse should happen to him. 

The truce between France and England had 
expired, and Edward was only too anxious to begin 
again a war which had procured to him such advan- 
tages of every kind. He landed at Calais in August, 
1355, and ravaged the province of Artois, whilst his 
son, " The Black Prince," entered France by Bor- 
deaux, and fared so successfully that he brought from 



190 THE STATES-GENERAL. 

Languedoc a thousand waggon loads of booty. The 
inactivity of the French king during the raids of the 
English, and the inefficient manner in which he op- 
posed their progress were scandalous, but no available 
funds existed to carry on the government, and a fresh 
appeal to the States-General was absolutely necessary. 
They met on December 2, 1355. 

Peter de la Forest, Chancellor of Paris and Arch- 
bishop of Rouen, opened the sitting in the name of 
the king, and requested the deputies to see together 
what subsidy they could grant to the Crown, suffi- 
cient towards defraying the expenses of the war ; and, 
forasmuch as he had been given to understand that 
his subjects were very much aggrieved by the altera- 
tion of the coinage, he promised to establish a strong 
and durable coinage, if they would only allow him 
money enough to carry on the war. The deputies 
selected by the States to return an answer to the king 
were John de Craon, Archbishop of Reims ; Walter 
VI., Count de Brienne and Duke of Athens ; and 
Etienne Marcel, provost of the merchants of Paris, 
— speaking respectively in the name of the clergy, the 
nobility, and the commons. These three men in- 
formed King John that the States would grant him an 
army of thirty thousand men every year, of which 
they would bear the expense ; and, in order to pro- 
cure the necessary money, it was decided, further, that 
a tax of eight deniers per livre should be paid by 
all Frenchmen without distinction of rank or pro- 
fession, besides the salt tax {gabelle) which was to be 
levied throughout the kingdom. The yield of these 
contributions was estimated at 5,000,000 livres. 



FINANCIAL MEASURES. igl 

In return for these grants, the States-General, 
actuated by what seemed then an act of extreme 
boldness, obtained a pledge that the coinage should 
be restored to its nominal value, that the right of 
confiscation and seizure till then exercised by the 
king wherever he sojourned, should be abolished, and 
that t/iej alone (the States- General^ should have the 
right to collect and pay the war-tax by the means of 
agents appointed by themselves. " These measures," 
M. Duruy observes (" Histoire de France"), " amounted 
to a revolution, for the collecting of the taxes and the 
care of controlling the expenses are an essential part 
of the rights of sovereignty." 

The notion of paying taxes was as hateful to the 
nobles as it was new and unheard of, and the two 
most conspicuous heads of the opposing party were 
the King of Navarre and his friend Count d'Har- 
court. The king, hearing of this, exclaimed, " I am, 
and mean to be, the sole master in France," and 
caused the two malcontents to be arrested at Rouen, 
at a festival given to them and to a number of lords 
by the Dauphin Charles. The King of Navarre was 
thrown into prison, and the Count d'Harcourt was 
beheaded. 

In the meanwhile, the Prince of Wales had taken 
the field at the head of two thousand men-at-arms, 
and six thousand archers ; he had crossed the Garonne 
and Dordogne, and laid waste the provinces of Au- 
vergne, Rouergue, Limousin, and Berry. The King 
of France met him near Poitiers ; he had under his 
orders one of the most brilliant armies that France 
had ever raised. There were, besides his four sons, 



192 BATTLE OF POITIERS. 

twenty-six dukes and counts, one hundred and forty 
knights-bannerets, and about fifty thousand soldiers, 
of which a large number were horsemen lothed in 
steel armour. John had arrived on the battlefield 
before the Prince of Wales, and had thus cut him off 
from the road to Bordeaux and from communications 
with the South of France. If he had only waited 
patiently, the English would have been starved, but 
John thought it most knightly to force a passage 
through the enemy. 

There was only a narrow path by which to arrive at 
the army of the Prince of Wales ; the king sent there 
a detachment of mounted soldiers. " Then," says 
Froissart, " the battle began on all parts . . . and 
they set forth that were appointed to break the array 
of the archers ; they entered a-horseback into the 
W'dy, where the great hedges were on both sides, set 
full of archers. As soon as the men-at-arms entered, 
the archers began to shoot on both sides, and did 
slay and hurt horses and knights, so that the horses 
when they felt the sharp arrows, they would in no 
wise go forward, but drew aback, and flung and took 
on so fiercely that many of them fell on their masters, 
so that for press they could not rise again, insomuch 
that the marshal's batayle could never come at the 
prince. Certain knights and squires that were well- 
horsed passed through the archers, and thought to 
approach to the prince, but they could not " (cap. 162), 

The English then descended the hill. " The Lord 
Charidos said to the prince, ' Sir, take your horse and 
ride forth ; this journey is yours. God is this day in 
your hands ; get in to the French king's batayle, for 



ERRORS AND BRAVERY OF THE KING. 1 93 

there lieth all the sore of the matter. I think, verily, 
by his valiantness, he will not fly ; I know we shall 
have him by the grace of God and Saint George, so 
he be well fought withal ; and, sir, I heard you say 
that this day I should see you a good knight' The 
Prince said, ' Let us go forth ; ye shall not see me 
this day return back ; ' and said, ' Advance, banner, in 
the name of God and of Saint George " {ibid}) 

" When the Duke of Normandy's batayle saw the 
prince approach, they thought to save themselves, and 
so the duke and the king's children, the Earl of 
Poitiers and the Earl of Touraine, who were right 
young, believed their governors, and so departed from 
the field, and with them more than eight hundred 
spears that stroke no stroke that day " {ibid?) 

This sudden and unlooked-for defection was terrible 
for the French. King John had committed gross 
blunders, first, by attacking the English prematurely ; 
and, next, by employing cavalry in a position where 
horses could not stand the shots of the archers; but 
he did prodigies of valour, and Froissart bears wit- 
ness to his personal courage. " On the French part," 
he says, " King John was on that day a full right 
good knight ; if the fourth part of his men had done 
their devoirs as well as he did, the journey had been 
his by all likelihood ; " and, further on, " King John 
with his own hands did that day marvels in arms ; he 
had an axe in his hands, wherewith he defended him- 
self, and fought in the breaking of the press." By his 
side was his son who won the surname of the bold {le 
hardi), and who kept saying, * Father ! ware right ! 
Father ! ware left ! ' " 



194 KING JOHN SURRENDERS, 

The rout was complete, and lasted till the gates of 
Poitiers. " There were many slain and many beaten 
down, horse and man ; for they of Poitiers closed 
their gates and would suffer none to enter ; where- 
fore, in the street before the gate, there was horrible 
murder, more hurt and beaten down ; the Frenchmen 
yielded themselves as far as they might know an 
Englishman ; there were divers English archers who 
had four, five, or six prisoners. . . . Then there was 
a great press to take the king, and such as knew him 
cried, ' Sir, yield you, or else ye are but dead ! ' There 
was a knight of Saint Omer, retained with wages with 
the King of England, called Sir Denis of Morbecke, 
who had served the Englishmen five years before, 
because in his youth he had forfeited the realm of 
France for a murder that he did at Saint Omer. It 
happened so well for him that he was next to the 
king, when they were about to take him ; he stepped 
forth into the press, and, by strength of his body and 
arms, he came to the French king and said, in good 
P>ench, ' Sir, yield you ! ' The king beheld the knight, 
and said, ' To whom shall I yield me ? Where is my 
cousin the Prince of Wales .? If I might see him I 
would speak with him.' Denis answered and said : 
' Sir, he is not here ; but yield you to me, and I shall 
bring you to him.' ' Who be you ? ' quoth the king. 
' Sir,' quoth he, ' I am Denis of Morbecke, a knight of 
Artois ; but I serve the King of England, because I 
am banished the realm of France, and I have for- 
feited all that I had there.' Then the king gave him 
his right gauntlet, saying, ' I yield me to you.' There 
was a great press about him, so that the king could 




FRONT ENTRANCE OF NOTRE DAME, AT POITIERS. 



196 THE FRENCH KING IN ENGLAND. 

not go forwards with his young son, the Lord Philip, 
with him because of the press " (cap. 164). 

Eleven thousand Frenchmen were left dead on the 
field of battle ; the English had only lost two thousand 
fiAe hundred. They had three times as many prisoners 
as there were soldiers to keep them. Thirteen counts, 
one archbishop, seventy barons, and two thousand men- 
at-arms, besides a large number of common soldiers 
had surrendered, and the question now was how to 
dispose of them. They were dismissed on giving 
their word that they would come to Bordeaux at 
Christmas-tide, and pay the stipulated price for their 
ransom or remain captives. King John was treated 
more courteously by the Prince of Wales, who felt 
the importance of the prize which fortune had thus 
unexpectedly placed within his hands. 

" The same day of the battle, at night, the prince 
made a supper in his lodging to the French king, and 
to the most part of the great lords that were prisoners ; 
. . . and always the prince served before the king as 
humbly as he could, and would not sit at the king's 
board, for any desire that the king could make ; but 
he said he was not sufficient to sit at the table with 
so great a prince as the king was ; but then he said 
to the king : " Sir, for God's sake, make no evil nor 
heavy cheer, though God this day did not consent to 
follow your will ; for, sir, surely the king, my father, 
shall bear you as much honour and friendship as he 
may do, and shall accord with you so reasonably, that 
you shall ever be friends together after'" (cap. 108). 

The King of France was treated with the same 
courtesy during the whole of the journey from 



TRAVELS TO WINDSOR. 197 

Poitiers to London. " When the King of England 
knew of their coming, he commanded them of Lon- 
don to prepare themselves and their city to receive 
sucJi a man as the French king was ; then they of 
London arrayed themselves by companies, and the 
chief masters' clothing different from the others. At 
St. Thomas of Canterbury the French king and the 
prince made their offerings, and there tarried a day ; 
and then rode to Rochester, and there tarried that 
day, and the next day to Dartford, and the fourth 
day to London, where they were honourably received, 
and so they were in every good town as they passed. 
The French king rode through London on a white 
courser, well apparelled, and the prince on a little 
black hobby by him ; thus he was conveyed along 
the city till he came to the Savoy, the which house 
pertained to the heritage of the Duke of Lancaster. 
There the French king kept his house a long season. 
. . . xA.nd after, by the commandment of Pope Inno- 
cent VI., there came into England the Lord Talley- 
rand, Cardinal of Perigord, and the Lord Nicholas, 
Cardinal d'Urgel ; they treated of a peace between 
the two kings, but they could bring nothing to effect ; 
but at last by good means they procured a truce 
between the two kings and all their assisters, to 
endure till the feast of St. John the Baptist, in the 
year of our Lord God 1359; and out of that truce 
was excepted the Lord Philip of Navarre and his 
allies the Countess of Montfort, and the Duchy of 
Bi-ittany. Anon after, the French king was removed 
from the Savoy to the Castle of Windsor, and all his 
household ; and went a-hunting and a-hawking there- 



ig8 MARCEL AND LECOQ. 

about at his pleasure, and the Lord Philip, his son, 
with him ; and all the other prisoners abode still in 
London, and went to see the king at their pleasure, 
and were received all only on their faiths " (cap. 

173). 
The behaviour of the nobles was beginning to 

excite great dissatisfaction amongst the common 

people, who accused them both of cowardice and of 

spending on themselves the money raised for the 

carrying on of the war. The princes of the royal 

family shared this want of confidence ; the Dauphin 

Charles had fled from the battle-field by his father's 

order, well and good. But why did he take away 

with him 800 lances ? Why did the Duke d'Orleans 

move off with his entire " batayle " before they had 

had the chance of fighting the enemy ? 

It was in the midst of all this excitement that the 
Dauphin Charles, young and sickly, arrived in Paris 
on the 29th of September, took the reins of power as 
lieutenant for the king, and called a meeting of the 
States-General for Monday, October 17th. 

Two very popular men — Etienne Marcel, Provost of 
the merchants, and Robert Lecoq, Bishop of Laon 
— took the lead in the opposition made by the people 
to the government of the Dauphin. They were both 
scandalized by the dilapidations which were going on 
around them, and the prelate, an ambitious man, who 
had expected to be appointed Chancellor of France, 
hated the royal family for not taking notice of his 
supposed claims, and made no secret of his sympathy 
for Charles de Navarre. Marcel carried out, with the 
Dauphin's consent, a plan for the better fortification 



"la GRANDE ORDONNANCE. igg 

of Paris, and managed to infuse into the States- 
General the spirit of patriotism by which he himself 
was animated. They aimed at nothing else but the 
direction of the government ; and when they pledged 
themselves to furnish the money necessary for the 
prosecution of the war, they, in their turn, imposed 
conditions which thoroughly frightened the Dauphin. 
Rather than find himself in subjection to the States- 
General, he preferred going without money, and, 
giving as a pretext the necessity in which he was of 
consulting the emperor, he broke up the assembly, 
and ordered the members to retire to their own homes. 
His real object was to appeal separately to all the 
large towns for help, and having signally failed, he is- 
sued, before starting for Metz, where he was to meet the 
emperor, a decree altering once more the value of the 
coinage. The result was a general rising ; and King 
John having annulled all that the States-General had 
done, the rising assumed the proportions of a revolu- 
tion. It is then that Etienne Marcel, unable to obtain 
from the Dauphin any satisfactory answer to the 
complaints of the people, sought the assistance of 
Charles /e Maiivais. What has been called the great 
edict {la grande ordonnance^ of 1357 was a remarkable 
document, and its seventy-one articles contained plans 
of reforms which were very much needed ; but it was 
essentially Parisian in its origin, and as such did not 
excite much sympathy beyond the walls of the 
metropolis. However, Marcel was the real King of 
France, and in the almost universal disorder he 
seemed the only person who had any energy left. On 
the day after the decree had been issued ordering a 



200 REVOLUTION IN PARIS. 

fresh alteration in the coinage, he assembled all the 
trade corporations in arms, and, accompanied by them, 
went to the hotel where the Dauphin resided. Then 
going up to the young prince's room, to ask him to 
provide at last for the defence of the realm, and to 
protect the people from the violence of the soldiery, 
"I would readily do it," answered the Dauphin, "if I 
could ; but the keeping of the realm should belong to 
him who enjoys the rights and profits." Many bitter 
words were exchanged, and, finally. Marcel said to the 
prince, " Sir, you must not be astonished at any inci- 
dent you shall see ; but it is necessary that the thing 
should be done." Then, turning to some of those 
who had followed him : " Come," said he, " do quickly 
that for which you came here." The mob rushed 
immediately upon the Marshals of Champagne and of 
Normandy, the two principal advisers of the Dauphin, 
and murdered them so close to him that his dress was 
stained with blood. Charles, frightened, begged of 
Marcel to spare him. The Provost assured him that 
he ran no danger ; however he put on the Dauphin's 
head his cap, which was red and blue — the colours of 
the city of Paris ; and then, addressing the mob from 
the town-hall, he told then what had been done to the 
two marshals, those arrant traitors. The populace* 
crowding the Place de Greve, shouted : " We own the 
fact, and we shall stand by you ! " On his return to 
the palace, Marcel found the Dauphin overwhelmed 
with terror and with grief " Do not be distressed, my 
Lord," said he ; " what has happened is the will of the 
people." 

Against this formidable movement of the Paris 



REACTION IN THE PROVINCES. 20I 

bourgeoisie a reaction could not but take place. The 
other towns were far from sympathizing with it, and 
we need scarcely say that the nobles cordially hated it. 
Under the pretext of presiding over the States of 
Champagne held at Provins, the Dauphin left Paris, 
and was promised the support of the barons both 
belonging to the province and to Vermandois. He 
managed to raise seven hundred lances, and at their 
head laid waste the country, occupying in succession 
Meaux, Melun, Saint Maur, the bridge of Charenton, 
and stopping all the supplies arriving towards Paris by 
the Upper Seine and the Marne. On his side, Marcel 
had taken possession of the Louvre, fortified the 
metropolis, and provided all the streets with chains, 
which, when stretched from one side to the other, 
could stop the progress of the troops ; he had also 
raised an army of mercenary soldiers. 

The peasants were those who had to suffer most 
from the disturbed state of the country. The towns 
and castles were comparatively safe from the attacks 
of the roiitiers ; the villages, on the contrary, could 
afford no resistance. The enemies, like a storm, passed 
on, plundering and robbing whatever came in their 
way ; the French troops came next ; they had to live, 
and as payment on their part was a matter of im- 
possibility, they accomplished the ruin of those whom 
they were supposed to defend. The barons, too, must 
needs indemnify themselves for the losses they had 
sustained ; they had to pay their own ransom and 
that of their families, to maintain a large band of 
men - at - arms, to keep stores and provisions of 
every kind. For all these requirements the peasants 



202 JACQUES BONHOMME. 

were made answerable ; until one fine day, Jacques 
Bonhomme (that was the common nickname given to 
the French peasantry) could bear it no longer, and 
hearing that the bourgeoisie had risen against the 
nobles, he thought he would join in the fray. 

" Cessez, cessez, gens d'armes et pietons 
De piller et manger le Bonhomme, 
Qui de longtemps Jacques Bonhomme 
Se nomme." 

This complaint, expressed in a rude poetical form, was 
followed by deeds of the most brutal character. The 
men of Beauvais, in Picardy, were the first to rise, and 
after a while they gathered together both in Cham- 
pagne and in Picardy to the number of one hundred 
thousand, finding an unexpected and welcome ally in 
Etienne Marcel, who was anxious to counteract the 
power of the Dauphin. Taken in the first instance by 
surprise, the nobles and barons soon recovered their 
firmness, and began against the Jacques a war which 
admitted of no mercy, and was relentlessly carried on. 
In a few weeks the peasants were exterminated. 

Deprived of his new allies, Marcel then tried to 
secure the co-operation of the King of Navarre, whom 
he had got out of prison, and for whom he had 
obtained the title of Captain of the City of Paris. 
But was it quite safe to trust a prince who had 
powerfully help to slaughter the revolutionists and to 
stamp out the Jacquerie ? Evidently no, for Charles 
de Navarre was at the very time negotiating with the 
Dauphin, who promised to satisfy all his claims, and, 
further, to give him 400,000 florins if he would only 
open to him the gates of Paris and surrender Etienne 



MARCEL AND CHARLES LE MAUVAIS. 203 

Marcel into his hands. The Provost, driven to ex- 
tremities, and anxious to save the revolutionarv move- 
ment, determined upon substituting to the reigning 
family of France the representation of the younger 
branch, and accordingly he promised to Charles /e 
Mauvais^ that he would allow him access to the gate 
and bastile Saint Denis. The prince would thus 
make himself master of Paris, put to death all his 
enemies whose houses were specially marked with a 
distinctive sign, and get himself proclaimed king. 
The carrying out of the plot was fixed for the night 
between the 31st of July and the ist of August. 

" The same night that this should have been done 
God inspired certain burgesses of the city, such as 
were always of the Duke's party, such as John 
Maillart, and Simon his brother, and divers others, 
who by divine inspiration, as it ought to be sup- 
posed, were informed that Paris should be that night 
destroyed. They incontinent armed themselves, and 
showed the matter in other places, to have more aid ; 
and a little before midnight they came to the gate 
Saint Antoine, and there they found the Provost of 
the merchants with the keys of the gates in his hands. 
Then John Maillart said to the Provost, calling him 
by his name : * Stephen, what do you here at this 
hour } ' The Provost answered and said : ' John, 
what would ye } I am here to take heed to the town, 
whereof I hav^e the governing.' ' By God,' said John, 
' ye shall not go so : ye are not here at this hour for any 
good, and that may be seen by the keys of the gates 
that ye have in your hands. I think it be to betray 
the town.' Quoth the Provost, ' John, ye lie falsely.' 



204 MURDER OF ETIENNE MARCEL. 

' Nay,' said John ; ' Stephen, thou liest falsely like a 
traitor,' and therewith struck at him, and said to his 
company : ' Slay the traitors ! ' Then every man 
struck at them ; the Provost would have fled, but 
John Maillart gave him a blow with an axe on the 
head, that he fell down to the earth, and yet he was 
his gossip ; and left not till he was slain, and six of 
them that were there with him, and the others taken 
and put in prison. 

" Then people began to stir in the streets, and John 
Maillart, and they of his accord, went to the gate of 
Saint Honore, and there they found certain of the 
Provost's sect, and then they laid treason to them, 
but their excuses availed nothing. 

"There were divers taken, and sent into divers 
places to prison, and such as would not be taken were 
slain without mercy. The same night they went and 
took divers in their beds, such as were culpable of the 
treason, by the confession of such as were taken. 

"The next day John Maillart assembled the most 
part of the Commons in the market hall, and there 
he mounted on a stage, and showed generally the 
cause why he had slain the Provost of the merchants ; 
and then, by the counsel of all the wise men, all such 
as were of the sect of the Provost were judged to the 
death, and so they were executed by divers torments 
of death. Thus done, John Maillart, who was then 
greatly in the grace of the Commons of Paris, and 
other of his adherents, sent Simon Maillart and two 
masters of the Parliament ... to the Duke of 
Normandy, being at Charenton. They showed the 
Duke all the matter, and desired him to come to 



STATE OF FRANCE. 205 

Paris to aid and to counsel them of the city from 
thenceforth, saying that all his adversaries were dead. 
The Duke said, ' With right a good will,' and so he 
came to Paris, and with him Sir Arnold D'Andehen, 
the Lord of Roy, and other knights ; and he lodged 
at the Louvre." ^ 

The situation of France was terrible, disorder 
reigned everywhere, and the usual accompaniments 
of war — famine and pestilence — were threatening the 
kingdom. Negotiations had been opened by King 
John with England, but they were of so humiliating 
a nature that the Dauphin refused to sanction them, 
and accordingly Edward invaded France once more 
(1359). He was himself beginning to get weary of 
this constant fighting, and the obstinate resistance he 
met with at every step he took, resistance made more 
obstinate by despair, discouraged him. There was no 
glory to be obtained, because there was no pitched 
battles ; no plunder to expect, because everything was 
either taken already, or concealed safely behind the 
walls of the fortresses. 

The following episode has often been quoted, but 
it deserves to be recorded again as a touching and 
curious illustration of the way in which the war was 
now carried on. It is related by the chronicler^ Jean 
de Venette. 

" There is a strong place in a small village called 
Longueil, near Compiegne. The inhabitants, seeing 
that they would run into danger if the enemy were 
to take possession of that place in their neighbour- 
hood, occupied it with the permission of the Abbot of 

^ Froissart, cap. 187. 



2o6 LE GRAND FERRE. 

Saint Corneille of Complegne, to whom it belonged, 
and of the Regent. They provided themselves with 
arms and victuals, selected one of themselves as cap- 
tain, and promised to the Lord Duke that they would 
defend their fortress to the last. Others came from 
the neighbouring villages. The captain was a tall, 
handsome man, by name Guillaume des Alouettes. 
He took as his servant another peasant, quite his 
match, a man of incredible strength of limbs, well- 
proportioned despite his stature, full of boldness and 
of vigour, and in his great body having a very low 
opinion of himself He was called le grand Ferre. 
They therefore assembled in that place, two hundred 
in number, all agriculturists, or earning their liveli- 
hood by manual labour. The English, who held the 
castle of Creil, hearing what sort of men they were, 
went to Longueil full of contempt, and without pre- 
caution, saying : ' Let us drive away those rustics, and 
take possession of the place.' Two hundred of them 
had arrived unnoticed ; finding the gates open, they 
walked boldly into the yard, when the unskilled 
soldiers of the garrison were still upstairs, looking out 
of the windows, and quite stupified at seeing the place 
full of armed men. The captain descended with some 
of his fellows, and began to strike ; but soon sur- 
rounded by the English, he was killed. The grmid 
Ferre and his companions said to one another : ' Let 
us come down, and sell our lives dearly, for we have 
no mercy to expect' They assembled in good order, 
and sallying forth from several gates, they began to 
knock upon the English just as if they were engaged 
in their ordinary task of threshing the corn. The 



THE ENGLISH AT LONGUEIL. 207 

arms rose in the air, fell down upon the English, and 
every blow was mortal. ^\\^ grand Ferre^ brandishing 
his heavy axe, did not touch one but he cleft his 
heavy helmet or struck off his arms. Behold all the 
English taking to flight ; several jumped into the 
moat and were drowned. The grand Ferre killed 
their standard-bearer, and told one of his followers to 
carry the standard into the moat. His men showing 
him a number of English still between himself and 
the moat : ' Follow me,' said le grand, and he went for- 
ward, plying his axe right and left till the banner had 
been cast into the water. He had killed on that day 
upwards of forty men. . . . On the morrow the Eng- 
lish came in great numbers to attack Longueil ; but 
the people of the village no longer dreaded them, and 
they ran to meet them, the gi^and Ferre at their head. 
Several English noblemen were taken, and would 
have paid large ransoms if the peasants had, like the 
nobles, offered them the option ; but they killed them 
in order that they might do no more harm. On this 
occasion the grand Ferre, heated by his work, drank 
a good deal of cold water, and was seized with fever. 
He went to the village, reached his cottage, and took 
to his bed, not, however, without keeping by his side 
his good iron axe, which an ordinary man could not 
raise. Having heard that he was ill, the English sent 
one day twelve men to kill him. His wife seeing them 
come from a distance, ran to his bed saying : ' Ah ! 
my Ferre, here are the English ! I really believe 
that they are looking out for you. What is to be 
done ? ' He immediately forgetting his illness got 
up quickly, took his axe and went into his small yard 



208 PEACE OF BRETIGNY, 

^Ah! thieves!' said he; ' so you have come to take 
me in my bed ? You have not caught me yet ! ' And 
in his wrath he killed five of them in a moment ; the 
other seven took to flight. The victor went to bed 
again ; but being very hot, he drank more cold water. 
Fever again seized him, and after a few days, the 
grand F err e \^{\. this world, having received the sacra- 
ments of the Church, and was buried in the village 
cemetery." 

This noble example and other similar ones did 
more than anything else to arouse patriotism in many 
faint hearts ; even Charles le Maitvais yielded ; he 
made his peace with the Regent, and declared that his 
only wish now was to prove himself a good Frenchman. 

Meanwhile the negotiations which had begun came, 
after a long time, to a satisfactory result, and peace 
was signed at the hamlet of Bretigny, near Chartres, 
on the 8th of May, 1360. Guienne, Poitou, Saintonge, 
Angoumois, Limousin, Calais, Guines, Montreuil, and 
the whole of Ponthieu were abandoned to England ; 
the King of France had, moreover, to pay a sum of 
3,000,000 crowns (about 250,000,000 francs). He 
had been brought back to Calais, but recovered his 
liberty only on disbursing a first instalment of 
500,000 crowns, and delivering into the hands of the 
English about one hundred hostages, including his 
second and his third son, his brother, twenty of the 
highest barons of France, and thirty-eight notable 
burgesses belonging to the principal cities of the 
kingdom. The money formed part of a sum of 
600,000 gold florins given by Galeazzo Visconti as 
the price of the hand of the young princess, Isabel 



DEATH OF THE RING. 209 

of France, whom he obtained as a wife for his son 
Giovanni Galeazzo. 

It was with feehngs of the bitterest sorrow that the 
inhabitants of the provinces ceded to England 
received the news of their no longer being French 
citizens, and in some places this sorrow led to de- 
hberate acts of resistance. John, however, went 
through France, in order to take possession of the 
Duchy of Burgundy, which became his by right of 
inheritance, on account of the death of Philippe de 
Rouvres, and which he made over to his son Philip 
the Bold. Visiting the Pope at Avignon, he had been 
nearly persuaded by him to attempt another Crusade, 
when he heard that one of his sons, the Duke 
d'Anjou, had escaped from the hands of the English, 
with whom he had been left as hostage. Resolving 
most loyally to take his place, John returned to 
London and spent the winter of 1343 in festivities 
which ended by killing him. He died April 8, 1364, 
at the early age of forty-four. He had created in 
135 1 the first official order of knighthood, the Order 
of the Star {VEtoik) which served as a pattern for the 
Order of the Golden Fleece {toison d'or) instituted in 
1439 by the Duke of Burgundy. 



XL 



CHARLES V. THE WISE, AND FIRST PART OF THE 
REIGN OF CHARLES VL 
(1 364-1 392.) 

Charles V. was twenty-seven years old when he 
succeeded his father. Delicate in his constitution, 
unable to stand any fatigue, so weak that many 
people suspected him to have been poisoned by 
Charles de Navarre, he seemed hardly the man to 
cope with the difficulties of the situation in which he 
was placed. His tastes, besides, were for study and 
literature ; he spent his time at the castle of Vincennes, 
or in Paris at the Hotel Saint Pol, in the company of 
'• solemn clerks " (c/ercs solennels), astrologers, and 
philosophers. Would such a king be able to conquer 
France from the English, and to hoist up the 
oriflamme 1 Fortunately a whole school of captains 
had arisen who understood that war is a science, and 
that, although personal courage is indispensable, the 
knowledge of tactics and of strategy is not less so. 
Bertrand Duguesclin and Olivier de Clisson, Marshal 
Boucicault, Louis de Chalons, Le Begue de Vilaines, 
the lords of Beaujeu, Pommiers et Reyneval, were the 
most distinguished of that band of soldiers, especially 



AUTHORITIES FOR THE REIGN OF CHARLES V. 211 

Duguesclin and Boucicault, whose high deeds have 
been described to us in two works still reckoned 
amongst the monuments of mediaeval literature. 
The " Livre des faicts du mareschal de Boucicault" 
(i 368-1421) is the interesting record of a life full of 
adventures which read like the old chansons de geste ; 
the " Roumant de Bertrand du Glasquin," as the title 
sufficiently shows, must be considered less as a 
biography than as an epic, in which imagination has a 
large share ; and the purpose of which is to rouse up 
the courage of the " good French knights." A third 
work remains to be mentioned, connected with the 
history of the reign ; we mean Christine de Pisan's 
" Livre des faits et bonnes moeurs du Roi Charles V.," 
which brings before us in all their curious details the 
character, the manners, and the habits of a good and 
wise king. 

Charles de Navarre had very soon forgotten the 
promise he had made of being 2in bo7i Francais for 
the future, and he was once again threatening the 
realm ; but his attitude was no justification whatever 
of the treacherous way in which his two cities of 
Mantes and Meulan were taken. He resolved upon 
avenging himself signally, and announced his intention 
of preventing the coronation of the young king at 
Reims. With that view he had collected an army 
composed chiefly of English and Gascon mercenaries, 
commanded by Jean de Grailli, Captal of Buch. 
Charles V. did not wait till the force had begun to 
move ; he, too, collected some troops whom he placed 
under the orders of Duguesclin, just named by him 
Captain-General of Normandy, and on the day of his 




CORONATION OF CHARLES V. 



BATTLE OF COCHEREL AND AURAY. 213 

coronation (May 19th) he learnt that the enemy had 
been signally defeated at Cocherel, near Evreux. 
Jean de Grailli was taken prisoner, and the Navarrese 
compelled to come to terms, must needs remains 
satisfied with the barony of Montpellier in exchange 
for his Normandy fiefs. 

The following portrait of Duguesclin is amusing. 

*'Mais I'enfant dont je dis et dont je vais parlant, 
Je crois qu'il not si lait de Resnes a Dinant. 
Camus estoit et noir, malotru et massant (?) 
Li pere et la mere si le heoient tant . . . ." 

*' But the child whom I mention, and about whom I speak, 

I think there never was such an ugly one from Rennes to Dinan. 
He was flat-nosed, and black, ill-mannered, and (?) 
His father and mother hated him so much." 

Such was the hero of Charles the Fifth's reign ; 
after having played an important part in the war 
against Charles de Navarre, he took the command of 
the French forces, sent to the assistance of Charles de 
Blois, who was disputing the possession of Brittany 
with the Count de Montfort, assisted by the famous 
English captain, John Chandos. In a battle which 
took place at Auray (September 29, 1364), Charles de 
Blois was killed, and Duguesclin, made prisoner, had 
to pay the enormous sum of 100,000 livres to recover 
his liberty. The King of France thought it was high 
time that a war which had lasted upwards of twenty 
years should come to an end. He acknowledged John 
de Montfort as Duke of Brittany, and contrived that 
peace should be signed at Guerande between that 
baron and the widow of Charles de Blois (April 
12, 1365J. 




STATUE OF DUGUESCLIN. 



THE " GRANDES COMPAGNIES." 215 

The next great task to which the King of France 
applied himself was to drive out of the country the 
numerous bands of adventurers w^hich, under the 
name of grandes coinpagnies, were doing almost as 
much mischief as the followers of Jacques Bonhomme. 
It happened that about that time the Spanish prince, 
Henry of Transtamare, was engaged in a war with 
his brother, Don Pedro of Castile, one of the greatest 
and most cruel tyrants of the mediaeval epoch. 
Charles V., to whom he had applied for assistance, 
was only too happy to find an opportunity of getting 
rid of the grandes compagriies ; he placed them at 
Transtamare's disposal, after having given to them as 
a leader Duguesclin, whose ransom he generously 
paid. Success favoured in the first instance Henry 
of Transtamare, but Don Pedro, having obtained the 
assistance of the Black Prince, defeated his brother, 
and Duguesclin became once more a prisoner of the 
English (April, 1367). 

Don Pedro had promised to pay the English hand- 
somely for the assistance they had given him, but he 
was penniless himself, and the inhabitants of Guyenne 
were obliged to bear all the burden of a fruitless 
expedition. Thoroughly irritated, they felt all the 
more the insolence of their new masters, and finally 
entered a formal complaint against the Black Prince 
for not observing the conditions of the treaty of 
Bretigny. Summoned in consequence by the King 
of France, his suzerain, to appear and justify himself 
before the court of parliament in Paris, the prince 
sent to prison the two messengers who had delivered 
to him the order, and prepared for a fresh war. In 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH. 2iy 

the meanwhile the tragic death of Pedro the Cruel, 
stabbed by Henry of Transtamare, having put an 
end to hostilities in the south, Charles V. felt at 
liberty to concentrate all his energies upon the 
struggle with the English. The taking of Limoges 
(1370) was the Black Prince's last exploit, and it was 
marked by incidents of unwonted cruelty. He re- 
turned to Bordeaux, and finally died in England (i 376)- 

The tide of affairs seemed beginning to turn in 
favour of the French. Charles V. renewed the old 
alliance with the Scotch ; he secured the friendship 
of the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Hainault, 
and obtained the hand of the heiress of Flanders for 
his young brother Philip, Duke of Burgundy. It is 
interesting to compare the state of the English army 
with that of the French. The former had an admirable 
infantry, excellent archers, and a body of men-at- 
arms, who by their severe training and their know- 
ledge of manoeuvring were as good as regular 
cavalry. Around Charles V, was assembled a large 
posse of noblemen extremely brave, but ignorant of 
the most elementary rules of discipline. Under such 
conditions pitched battles were to be avoided, but 
small encounters might take place in the interval 
between two expeditions, and Duguesclin, now named 
Constable of France, distinguished himself in actions 
of that kind. 

We are told that during the Breton war (1350) 
Robert de Beaumanoir, governor of the Castle of 
Josselin, sent a challenge to the English captain, 
Richard Bramborough, commanding the town of 
Ploermel. The two champions, each accompanied 



2l8 DUGUESCLIM. 

by twenty-nine knights, met on a heath near Josselin, 
and engaged in a desperate battle. Beaumanoir, 
wounded at the beginning of the fray, and very 
thirsty in consequence, asked for something to drink. 
" Drink your blood, Beaumanoir ! " exclaimed one of 
his companions, Geoffrey Dubois, and went on striking 
right and left. Four Frenchmen, nine Englishmen 
(including Bramborough) were killed ; all the others 
were severely wounded. The English surrendered to 
the French. 

Now this was the kind of fight that Duguesclin 
most relished ; he defeated at Pont Vallain Robert 
Knolles (1370), and routed another body of partisans 
near Chizej' in Poitou (1373) ; the illustrious Chandos 
had been killed during the first campaign, and in 
1372 the Captal de Buch was taken prisoner near 
Soubise. Evidently the English were losing ground 
in France ; Poiliers and La Rochelle (1372) had been 
wrested from them, and, thoroughly wearied, they 
asked for a truce, which lasted till the death of 
Edward III. in 1377. Charles V. then broke it, and) 
having ineffectually tried to annex Brittany to the 
Crown, he was about to fight the Bretons, assisted b}^ 
the English, when death carried him off at Vincennes 
(September 16, 1380). 

We must now consider for a short time the King of 
France as an administrator and a protector of litera- 
ture. His perseverance, his economy, his probity (he 
would not have recourse to the dangerous and immoral 
practice of altering the coinage), procured for him the 
" sobriquet " of t/ie wise. He rendered the parliament 
permanent, curtailed the privileges of the nobles, and 



220 



BUDGET OF CHARLES V, 



introduced important reforms in the finances ; indirect 
taxes {aides) were made permanent likewise, and 
instead of allowing a salary to the members of the 
parliament, he abandoned to them the fines they 
might inflict upon condemned criminals and delin- 
quents — a measure which was not calculated to 
promote the cause of indifferent justice. 

Charles V. was very fond of building ; he com- 
menced the Bastiie, repaired and enlarged the Paris 
walls and the Louvre, and constructed the Hotel 
Saint Pol, the chapel of Vincennes, and the castles 
of Beaute, Plaisance, and Melun. The idea of uniting 
the Loire to the Seine, carried out two centuries later 
by Henry IV., was originally his. To conclude this 
enumeration, we shall give here the items of what 
may be called the French budget for 1372. It is 
taken from the great decree {prdonnance) for the same 
year as reproduced in M. Duruy's " History of 
France " : — 



For the payment of the gensd'armes ... 

For t^e gensd'armes and cross-bow men of the new 

foundation ... 
For the navy 
For the king's hostel 
To place in the king's coffers 
Unforeseen expenses 
Payment of the debt ... 



FRANCS 

50,000 

42,000 

8,000 

6,000 

5,000 

10,000 

10,000 

131,000 



We must note that this is a monthly statement ; the 
yearly expenses, therefore, amounted to 1,572,000 
francs in gold crowns (about 130,000,000 francs 
according to the present value of French money), and 



POLITICAL WRITINGS. 221 

out of this sum 72,000 francs, about i-22nd, went for 
the personal expenses of the King, the Queen, and 
the Dauphin. 

** Charles V.," says M. Michelet ("History of 
France"), "is perhaps the first king of that nation, 
till then so light-hearted, who knew how to prepare 
from afar the success, and who understood the influ- 
ence, distant and slow then, but even at that time real 
of books over business. The prior, Honore Bonnor, 
wrote by his order and under the odd title of ' L'arbre 
des Batailles,' the first essay on the rights of peace 
and of war. His advocate, Raoul de Presle, trans- 
lated for him the Bible in the vulgar tongue. His old 
tutor, Nicholas Oresme, translated into French the 
other Bible of those days, namely, Aristotle. Oresme, 
Raoul de Presles, Philip de Maizieres, worked to- 
gether on those ponderous tomes — the ' Songe du 
Vergier,' the * Songe du vieux Pelerin,' kinds of cyclo- 
paedic romances, where all the questions interesting 
at that time were discussed, and which prepared the 
abatement of the spiritual power and the confisca- 
tion of Church property. Similarly, during the six- 
teenth century, Pithou, Passerat, and a few others 
worked together on the ' Satire Menippee.'" 

Another book which should not be forgotten is the 
small political pamphlet entitled, " Le vray regime et 
gouvernement des Bergers et Bergeres, compose par 
le rustique Jehan de Brie, le bon Berger." It is a 
matter of doubt whether it was not dictated in part 
to the author by Charles V. Under an allegorical 
form it is an appeal to concord and goodwill. Jean 
de Brie preaches from the well-known parable of the 



222 THE DUKE D^ANyOU. 

sheepfold, and tells that the Good Shepherd scorns 
to imitate Charles of Navarre, who tried to enter 
into Paris by night ; he does not sell Christendom 
secretly, like Clement IV., nor does he, after the 
fashion of certain cunning and deceitful clerks, take 
possession fraudently of prebends and rich benefices. 

The remonstrances and counsels of Jean de Brie 
were reasonable during the days of Charles V. ; how 
much more so amidst the confusion, the misgovern- 
ment, and general distress which marked the reign of 
Charles VI. .? 

Although the eldest of the brothers of the late 
king, Louis, Duke d'Anjou, had not been summoned 
to wait upon him during his last moments, because 
people dreaded his ambition, his greed, and his cove- 
tousness. Christine de Pisan describes him as "tall and 
of a pontifical (stately) appearance ; most handsome 
both of body and of countenance, very courageous, 
and much desirous of lordships and of treasures." 

The Duke d'Anjou had taken care to have the bed- 
side of Charles V. watched by trusty followers, who 
kept him well informed of all that took place and of 
the progress of the king's malady. The fatal moment 
had scarcely arrived, when he came to the palace, 
and seized upon the Crown jewels and the treasury, 
amounting, it is said, to nineteen millions. At the 
same time he assumed the government of the state 
contrary to the express will of Charles V., who had 
entrusted the regency to his two other brothers, the 
Dukes of Burgundy and of Berry, and to his brother- 
in-law, the Duke ot Bourbon. 

The three princes above named were not in the 



COUNCIL OF REGENCY. 223 

slightest degree willing to resign their claims, and 
they had their partisans and friends on whose co- 
operation they could rely in case of need. Besides, 
if the Duke d'Anjou had the advantage of being 
master of Paris, they had the far greater one of keep- 
ing under their guardianship the young King Charles, 
who was only twelve years of age, and who resided 
with them at Melun. What was to be done ? A few 
lords, amongst whom was the Chancellor of Franoe, 
Peter d'Orgemont, proposed that the difference should 
be submitted to a council composed of bishops, lords, 
members of the parliament, of the court of accounts, 
and burgesses of the principal towns {bomies villes). 

The meeting was a very stormy one ; whilst the 
Duke d'Anjou maintained with much eloquence his 
rights of seniority, the Chancellor put forward the 
will of Charles V., and his express declaration on 
the subject of the regency. An appeal to brute force 
was imminent, when the Advocate-General, Desmarets, 
proposed that four arbitrators should be appointed, 
whose decision all would be bound to accept. The 
resolution arrived at was as follows : In the first 
place, the young king was to be crowned immediately, 
the Duke d'Anjou retaining the title of regent till the 
moment of the coronation, and sharing afterwards 
with the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy the tutelage 
of Charles VI. till his majority, fixed by his father to 
the age of fourteen. The Duke d'Anjou obtained 
besides what he most coveted — the jewels, plate, and 
money, the value of which would enable him to con- 
quer the kingdom of Naples, to which he had been 
called by Joan, the late queen. 



224 CHARLES VI. IN PARIS. 

Charles VI. made a solemn entry into Reims on 
the occasion of his coronation ; he was accompanied 
by his four uncles, and by a large gathering of lords 
and prelates. After the ceremony a sumptuous 
banquet was held, during which an incident occurred 
which threatened to disturb the harmony re-esta- 
blished with so much difficulty. The prelates, 
according to custom, sat on the right of the king ; 
the Duke d'Anjou had selected the seat immediately 
on his left, but the Duke of Burgundy insisted upon 
occupying it, as being the premier peer of France, 
and the other competitor had to resign his preten- 
sions not without expressing loudly his dissatisfaction. 
The banquet was served by the highest barons in 
the kingdom : the Lord of Coucy, the Constable 
Olivier de Clisson, Admiral John de Vienne, the Lord 
de la Tremoille ; they were mounted on their chargers 
and arrayed in cloth of gold. The festival was 
concluded by the performance of one of those " mys- 
teries" or miracle- plays which constitute the dramatic 
literature of the Middle Ages. 

On the return of the king to his capital, and after 
the excitement ordinary to the first few days of a 
new reign, the perils which threatened France became 
more and more evident. In the first place, a feudal 
reaction was manifesting itself against the acts of 
Charles V. ; his friends and advisers were dismissed, 
whilst the regents bestowed all their favour upon 
lords and barons who had long been kept excluded 
from the councils of the State. Then, the financial 
condition of the people was wretched, a rising seemed 
inevitable, and the Duke d'Anjou was reproached 



THE DUKE D' AN you. 22$ 

for not doing away with the gabelle and other exces- 
sive taxes which the late king had solemnly promised 
to abolish. 

Upwards of three hundred men marched towards 
the palace to obtain an answer to their just com- 
plaints. The Duke d'Anjou, nothing daunted, got upon 
a table and, addressing the rioters, reminded them 
that the city of Paris was indebted to the Crown 
for all its privileges and its monuments ; the petitions 
of the citizens had always been courteously attended 
to, and on this occasion they would meet with the 
same consideration, provided order was re-estab- 
lished at once. 

The salt tax being done away with according to 
the declaration, it became necessary for the regents 
to procure money by other means ; the Duke 
d'Anjou assembled no less than seven times in the 
course of one year (1381) the deputies of the three 
orders with a view of obtaining from them a grant 
of subsidies. It was all in vain ; people compared 
the successors of Philip the Fair with what tradition 
related about Saint Louis, the paternal nature of his 
government and his sense of justice. " The citizens 
of Paris," says the chronicler, Juvenal des Ursins, 
" assumed armours and war-dresses ; they elected 
captains of tens, fifties, and forties, laid chains through 
the streets, and had watches placed at the gates." 

The Duke d'Anjou, without taking any notice of 
all this, resolved upon having a new tax of one- 
twelfth denier on all provisions. It was a difficult 
thing to find a man bold enough to announce the 
raising of that tax ; at last one individual undertook 



^26 THE MAILLOT INS. 

the duty, and riding in the market-place, he exclaimed, 
in a loud voice — "The king's plate has been stolen; 
he who brings it back shall be duly rewarded ! '* 
Having by this announcement gathered a crowd, he 
added, " To-morrow the tax shall be raised," then, 
putting spur to his horse, he rode off as fast as he 
could. 

The next day. one of the collectors ventured to 
ask one sol from an old woman who sold water- 
cress ; he was immediately knocked down and killed. 
So terrible was the alarm that the bishop, the 
principal citizens, and even the provost, whose busi- 
ness it was to maintain order, left Paris. The in- 
furiated mob ran through the city armed with 
new leaden mallets {inaillets) which they had taken 
in the arsenal ; they made a frightful slaughter of 
the tax collectors ; one of them had sought refuge 
in the church of Saint Jacques, and clung to a statue 
of the Virgin ; he was put to death on the very 
altar (March i, 1382). They sacked the rich abbey 
of Saint Germain des Pres under the pretext that 
collectors and Jews had retired there. 

From Vincennes, where they had withdrawn for 
safety, the princes watched the progress of the riot ; as 
soon as they saw that public feeling was declaring 
against the excesses committed by the maillotins, they 
applied to the university and the leading citizens, 
requesting them to act as mediators. It was agreed 
on both sides that the city of Paris should allow to 
the king a grant of one hundred thousand francs ; 
in return of this concession, Charles VL was to 
abolish the new tax, and make a solemn entry in 
the capital (May, 1382). 



GENERAL RISING OF THE PEOPLE. 227 

It is not to be supposed that the sedition was 
confined to Paris ; at Rouen, at Orleans, at Chalons, 
and at Troyes, similar scenes occurred ; in Languedoc 
the peasants flew to arms under the name of tuchins. 

As M. Michelet remarks ('* Histoire de France," vi.) 
it seemed as if throughout the length and breadth 
of Europe a war was beginning, of the little against 
the great, the pi^oletm^iate against the nobles. The 
" white hoods " of Flanders followed a citizen of 
Ghent; the Florentine "ciompi" had for leader a 
wool-carder ; the people of Rouen compelled a draper 
to assume the supreme command ; in England Wat 
Tyler at the head of the mob obliged the king to 
grant freedom to the serfs. 

It was generally felt that this revolutionary move- 
ment originated with the inhabitants of Ghent, who 
had been for many years struggling for their freedom 
against the counts of Flanders. " On the part of the 
counts," says Mr. Taylor (preface to " Philip van 
Arteveldt "), were Bruges, Oudenarde, Dendermonde, 
Lille, and Tournay ; and those on the part of Ghent 
were Damme, Ypres, Courtray, Grammont, Popering- 
hen, and Messines — a war which in its progress 
extended to the whole of Flanders, and excited a 
degree of interest in all the civilized countries of 
Europe for which the cause must be sought in the 
state of European communities at the time. It 
was believed that entire success on the part of Ghent 
would bring on a general rising almost throughout 
Christendom, of the commonalty against the feudal 
lords and men of substance. The incorporation of 
the citizens of Paris known by the name of "the 



228 BATTLE OF ROOSEBEKE. 

army with mallets " {inaillothis) was, according to 
the well-known chronicler of the period, " all by the 
example of them of Ghent." Nicolas le Flamand 
deterred them from pulling down the Louvre, by 
urging the expediency of waiting to see what suc- 
cess might attend the Flemish insurgents." 

The princes were naturally anxious to crush the 
rebellion in its principal centre, and raised an army 
to assist the Count of Flanders in subduing the 
inhabitants of Ghent. On the 26th of November, 
1382, the feudal army, commanded by the young 
king, Charles VI., and by his uncle the Duke of 
Burgundy, met at Roosebeke the troops of the Flemish 
communes, led by Philip van Arteveldt, son of the 
famous brewer of whom we have already spoken. The 
battle was fought on the next day, and in the midst 
of a thick fog the rebels displayed such courage that 
the French knights were driven back for a short time. 
Constable Olivier de Clisson, however, following the 
plan adopted by Duguesclin at Cocherel, turned 
round the enemy, cut off their retreat and made a 
frightful havoc of them. Arteveldt himself and 
twenty-five thousand of his men were killed ; the loss 
was very serious also on the side of the French. 

Great was the consternation of the Parisians when 
the news of the battle of Roosebeke reached them. 
The royal army entered Paris as if it had been a city 
reduced to submission. The inhabitants fancied that 
by making a display of their strength they would 
obtain better conditions ; they paraded at the foot 
of Montmartre in a long array of armed men ; there 
was a company of crossbow men, one of soldiers 



THE MAILLOTINS, 229 

with swords and bucklers, one of maillotins ?iTno\\nt\ng 
by itself to twenty thousand men. This exhibition 
only served to exasperate the princes. The gates of 
the city were torn down and trampled under foot, the 
soldiers were billeted upon the citizens, the street- 
chains were removed and every one was ordered to 
give up at once all kinds of weapons. One chronicler 
tells us that the amount of arms thus left either at 
the palace or at the Louvre, would have sufficed for 
an army of eight hundred thousand men. Then 
came the executions. A kw of the ringleaders were 
put to death. Finally, money had to be forthcoming : 
all the rich boiirgeois were taxed so heavily that some 
of them paid more than they really possessed. When 
nothing more could be squeezed out of the pockets of 
the Parisians, an edict, solemnly proclaimed, re-estab- 
lished all the old taxes further increased. Complaint 
was impossible ; there was no commune, no provost, no 
magistrates, no city of Paris. Rouen, Reims, Chalons, 
Orleans, Troyes, and Sens, were treated pretty 
nearly in the same manner ; most of the money 
thus iniquitously extorted went towards enriching 
a few of the barons, and the public treasury very 
little profited by it. 

Not only did those measures produce no effect, 
but dissensions took place even amongst the king's 
advisers. The old trusty -councillors of Charles V. 
remonstrated, endeavoured to enlighten the young 
monarch on the conduct of his uncles, and advised 
him to take the reins of government into his own 
hands. Accordingly during the month of October, 
1387, a great assembly of prelates and barons was 



230 THE MARMOUSETS. 

summoned at Reims ; the Dukes of Berry and of 
Burgundy were present ; the Duke d'Anjou had 
recently died in Italy. Charles VI. having asked 
the assembly to advise him as to the best way of 
remedying the evils from which the realm was 
suffering, Peter de Montaigu, Bishop of Laon, sup- 
ported by the Archbishop of Reims, Olivier de 
Clisson, and other enemies of the regents, declared 
that his majesty being now twenty-one years old 
could govern by himself. The Dukes of Berry and 
Burgundy were furious ; they left the court, but they 
made the Bishop of Laon pay for his boldness ; he 
died of poison. 

The departure of the king's uncles produced two 
good effects ; in the first place, these princes could 
now attend to their respective dominions, re-establish 
order and commerce, drive away brigands and 
suspicious characters, &c. Next, the new advisers of 
the weak Charles VI., La Riviere, Clisson, and others, 
were men of steady judgment, and liberal principles, 
desirous of re-establishing the administration of 
justice, reducing the taxes and giving up all the 
rash and senseless undertakings planned by their 
predecessors. They were contemptuously nicknamed 
the Afarmoiisets, because they had sprung chiefly from 
the people, and were of very humble extraction. 
If they had been able to retain office they would 
have no doubt done much for France, but a melan- 
choly event upset all these hopes and brought fresh 
calamities to France. 

Olivier de Clisson, one of the Marmousefs, had 
managed to incur the hatred of two powerful noble- 




CHARLES VI. 



232 ATTEMPT UPON CLISSON. 

men — one being the Duke of Brittany himself, who 
naturally was watched with suspicion by the Constable, 
the sworn friend of the house of Anjou and Penthievre. 
Clisson longed for the moment when he would be 
able to drive away to England the Duke of Brittany 
and to rid France of the Montfort family. Another 
nobleman, but not of quite so high an origin, was 
Peter de Craon, a despicable character, retainer of the 
late Duke d'Anjou, whose treasury he had robbed 
and whose death he had caused. He promised to 
the Duke of Brittany that he would rid him of his 
enemy, and did so accordingly. One evening, Clisson 
had just left the king when he was attacked by a 
band of desperadoes at the head of which was Pierre 
de Craon himself. He was not killed, but seriously 
wounded, and Charles VI. promised that he would 
avenge him in the most signal manner. An army 
was assembled and the monarch who had only just re- 
covered from a severe attack of fever determined, con- 
trary to the advice of the physicians, upon command- 
ing the royal forces in person. He would march into 
Brittany, and put to death both John de Montfort 
and Pierre de Craon, who had taken refuge at his 
Court. 

It was in summer (August 5, 1392) when the 
army entered the forest of Le Mans. The heat was 
intolerable. Suddenly a man, bareheaded and 
wretchedly clothed, rushed forward and seizing hold 
of the reins of the king's charger, exclaimed, " King, 
do not move one step further, but return ; you are 
betrayed ! " The man should have been arrested ; 
he was allowed to get away. Startled and terrified 



CHARLES VI. STRUCK WITH MADNESS. 233 

by this strange incident, Charles VI. proceeded, when 
the lances carried by two pages riding near him 
happened to strike against each other, and at the 
noise he shouted : " Death to the traitors ! " then 
drawing his sword he rushed upon his escort, killing 
and wounding several men, and threatening even 
his brother. Every one fled, but at last the un- 
fortunate monarch was seized, disarmed, and brought 
back from Le Mans to Creil. The first thought which 
occurred to every one was that he had been either 
poisoned or " bewitched." The fact is that his de- 
baucheries, his violent passions, and the intoxicating 
influence of royal power, had predisposed his weak 
head to an attack of madness which was now brought 
about by sudden excitement and by a sun-stroke. 




XII. 

SEC0I>3D PART OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES VI. 
(1392-I422.) 

Some one having remarked to the Duke de Berry 
that the king was either " poisoned or bewitched," 
" Yes, by bad advice," was the answer. This was the 
death warrant of the Marmoiisets, so to say. CHsson 
hastened to retire to Brittany, Montaigu w^ent off to 
Avignon ; LaRiviere,Novion,andLeBeguedeVilaines 
were sent to the Bastile. Restored to power, the 
princes succeeded in governing France a Httle more 
deplorably than their predecessors had done. They 
concluded with England a truce of twenty-eight years 
(1395), and gave a daughter of Charles VI. in mar- 
riage to Richard II., but the death of that king 
nullified the advantages which might have resulted 
from the union. 

The Crusade of 1396 is another rash and useless 
deed which brought into disrepute the new adminis- 
tration. The Turks had, during the last forty years, 
gradually secured a footing in Europe. They had 
crossed the Bosphorus, taken Adrianople, and con- 
quered part of the valley of the Danube ; they were 
now threatening Hungary. A Crusade was resolved 
upon, and the Count de Nevers, afterwards better 



ISABELLE OF BAVARIA. 235 

known as John the Fearless (Jean sans Peur), Duke of 
Burgundy, took the command. He was only twenty- 
four years old, and thought, as well as all his followers, 
that a Crusade was a kind of pleasure trip. Despising 
the wise advice of the King of Hungary, Sigismund, 
they engaged the battle at Nicopolis with a total dis- 
regard of all the rules of tactics, and were signally 
defeated. The Sultan Bajazet ordered ten thousand 
captives to be beheaded in his presence, excepting 
from the massacre only the Count de Nevers and 
twenty-four lords, who had to pay a heavy ransom. 

Isabelle of Bavaria must not be forgotten amongst 
the personages of this mournful drama. She wa^ not 
fifteen years old when she left Germany to become 
the bride of Charles VI. Without relatives, without a 
guide in the most corrupt Court in Europe, she adopted 
the manners and habits of her entourage, dLr\d indulged 
to the full her taste for luxury and pleasures. Instead 
of sobering her down, time merely developed her evil 
habits. From frivolity she sank down to debauchery, 
and made use of her authority for the exclusive pur- 
pose of satisfying her passions and her revengeful 
nature. 

The Duke d'Orleans, husband of the beautiful and 
accomplished Valentine Visconti, had been her lover. 
She saw him massacred by some of the followers of 
John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, who was jealous 
of his popularity, and wished to retain the power in 
his own hands. We have all the particulars of this 
terrible deed. Since the attempted murder of Olivier 
de Clisson it was quite evident that the closest verifi- 
cation alone could guarantee that the victim was really 



236 MURDER OF THE DUKE D' ORLEANS, 

and unmistakably dead. Accordingly a man carrying 
a lighted wisp of straw came forward and examined 
for himself if the intentions of the Duke of Burgundy 
had been carried out. In this case no hesitation was 
possible ; the corpse was literally hacked to pieces ; 
the right arm cut through in two places, at the elbow 
and "at the wrist ; the left wrist thrown to a distance, 
as if from the violence of the blow ; the head open 
from ear to ear ; the skull broken, and the brains scat- 
tered all over the pavement. The Duke of Burgundy 
wanted, at first, to justify his action, but thinking that 
he might perhaps run the chance of being arrested, 
he fled to his possessions in Flanders, from whence 
he ordered it to be said, preached, and written, that 
by causing the Duke d'Orleans to be murdered he 
had merely anticipated the sinister designs of that 
prince. He then marched (1408) against the inhabi- 
tants of Liege who had rebelled, and defeated them 
at Hasbain with the slaughter of twenty-five thousand 
of their men. In the meanwhile a popular preacher, 
Jean Petit, un<lertook to justify the foul deed of John 
the Fearless. Mounting the pulpit he proved, by twelve 
arguments, in honour of the twelve apostles, that the 
Duke d'Orleans had d -served his fate. i. Because he 
was suspected of heresy. 2. Because he armed at 
usurping the throne. 3. Because the State would have 
found in him a tyrant. Strengthened by this extra- 
ordinary sermon, the Duke of Burgundy returned to 
Paris, and succeeded in wresting from the imbecile 
king letters of remission declaring that he, Charles VI., 
entertained no ill-will against the duke for having " put 
out of the world his brother, the Duke d'Orleans " 



DEATH OF VALENTINE VISCONTI. zy] 

(Peace of Chartres, March, 1409). As for poor Valen- 
tine Visconti, it is no exaggeration to say that her 
husband's death killed her. She had taken as her 
motto : " Rien ne m'est plus, plus ne m'est rien," and 
died broken-hearted in 1408. 

John the Fearless made himself extremely popular 
by opposing the levying of fresh taxes, promising a 
reduction of the old ones, and behaving most affably 
to *' all sorts and conditions of men." He was espe- 
cially courteous to the Parisians, restored to them all 
their old privileges, and even obtained for them the 
important right of possessing " noble fiefs," with all 
the advantages belonging to them. It was in the 
people of the market-place {les gens des halles), says 
an historian, that the strength of the Bourguignon 
faction resided in Paris. These concessions to the mob 
increased the displeasure of the Orleanists, and of all 
those who represented the old feudal party ; they took 
as their leader the Count d'Armagnac, father-in-law of 
one of the murdered duke's sons. 

The situation of the kingdom was indeed deplor- 
able; and did no protest arise, no cry of indignation, 
no appeals to the patriotism of true Frenchmen } 
Yes ; three eloquent voices made themselves heard, 
three writers won their reputation by denouncing the 
crimes of some and the cowardice or want of energy 
of the rest. 

Look at the condition of the people. Bears, lions, 
leopards, wolves, that is to say, the nobles combined 
to fleece the cattle. The ass, the cow, the ox, the 
goat, the sow, come in turns to bend the knee before 
the wild beasts of the forest'; the sheep ventures 
timidly to say that she has been already— 



238 BUST ACHE DESCHAMPS. 

•' Quatre fois plumee 
Cest an-cy." 

To these doleful and piteous moanings of the common 
people a concert of sharp and threatening voices 
answers — 

" Sa, de I'argent ! Sa, de I'argent ! " 

" Money ! Money ! " Such is the cry which all the 
day long sounds in the ears of the famished people. 
Every now and then, driven to frenzy, they rise, put 
to death the collectors of the taxes, and then, 
astonished at their own victory, they fall down again 
under the yoke ; and hear the barons on one side, and 
the king's lawyers on the other, pressing them — those, 
sword in hand, these armed with a long piece of 
parchment, and repeating, as before — 

" Sa, de I'argent ! Sa, de I'argent ! " 

Sometimes Eustache Deschamps (such was the 
name of that patriotic songster) directs his violent 
invective against the foreign enemies of France, the 
victors of Cressy and Poitiers — 

" Selon le Brut de I'isle des Geants 
Qui depuis fust Albion appelee 
Peuple mandit, tar dis {tardily) en Dieu creans. 
Sera Tisle de tout point desolee. 
Par leus orgueil vient la dure journee 

Dont leur prophete Merlin, 
Pronostica leur douloureux fin, 
Quand il escript : vie perdrez et terre. 
Lors monslrertnit estrangiers et voisin, 
Oil, temps jadis {informer tivies) estoit cy {here was) Angleterre." 

Next to Eustache Deschamps, Alain Chartier takes 
up his parable against his fellow citizens, and in the 



ALAIN CHARTIER — CHRISTINE DE PISAN. 239 

"Quadriloge invectif" shows that all the four orders 
of the State are equally responsible for the grievous 
woes which God has sent upon the country. " Where 
is Nineveh, the great city around which it took three 
days to walk ? What has become of Babylon, cun- 
ningly built in order that it might last longer, and 
which is now a dwelling for reptiles ? " Is France 
doomed to mix her dust with that of other nations ? or 
is this only a terrible and transitory affliction ? " I 
have come to the conclusion that the hand of God is 
upon us." If God punishes, the French must be 
guilty. 

We have already spoken of Christine de Pisan, that 
true patriot who, although Italian by birth, was more 
French at heart than many who boasted of their 
nationality. The letter in which she reminded Isa- 
belle of Bavaria of her duties as a queen and a mother, 
is a monument of genuine eloquence. At every fresh 
misfortune which visits the house of France she utters 
a cr}' of alarm ; she styles herself " une povre voix 
criant dans ce royaume, desireuse de paix et du 
bien de tous." The weakest appeal may often remind 
men of their duties — 

*'Si {iherefore) ne veuillez mespriser mon ouvrage, 
Mon redoubte seigneur, humain et saige. 

Car petite clochette grant voix sonne, 
Qui bien souvent les plus saiges reveille." 

In spite of these cautions the civil war continued to 
rage with all its violence ; the Armagnacs prevailed 
in the west and the south, the Bourguignons in the 
north and the east. The former wore a white scarf, 



240 BURGUNDIANS AND ARMAGNACS. 

the latter a blue cap with the cross of Saint Andrew 
in white, 2. fleur-de-lys in the centre, and the motto : 
" Vive le Roy ! " 

The Duke of Burgundy fortified himself in Paris, 
armed the populace, and abandoned the power to a 
considerable extent to the co-operation of the butchers, 
who kept the rest of the population in awe, and had 
for their leaders the ^d.y^xiecorcheuj') Caboche, a surgeon 
named Jean de Troyes, and Capeluche, the common 
hangman. The nobles and rich citizens were 
thoroughly frightened, and more than fifteen hundred 
of them, having the provost at their head, left Paris, 
and retired to Melun. 

The excesses committed by the Burgundians 
brought about a reaction ; the Armagnacs returned 
to favour, and the rival leaders seemed on the point 
of being reconciled to each other, when news came 
that Henry V., King of England, had landed at Har- 
fleur (August 14, 141 5). Before entering upon a new 
war he had endeavoured to obtain by negotiations 
the whole of Normandy and the provinces ceded to 
him by the treaty of Bretigny, but finding his exorbi- 
tant pretensions indignantly refused, he besieged Har- 
fleur, took it after a siege which lasted a whole month, 
and cost him fifteen thousand men ; then marching into 
Picardy, met the French army between the villages 
of Tramecourt and Azincourt The French spent 
on horseback the night before the battle, and when the 
dawn came both men and horses were thoroughly 
worn out. The English, on their side, says a chronicler, 
sounded all night long their trumpets and different 
kinds of musical instruments, so much so that 




HEAD-DRESS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 



242 BATTLE OF AZINCOURT. 

the whole earth around re-echoed with the noise 
although they were sad, weary, and suffering from 
famine and other miseries. They made their peace 
with God confessing their sins, weeping, and partaking 
of our Lord's body, for they expected death the next 
day. And, indeed, it seemed hardly probable that 
twelve thousand Englishmen decimated by privations 
and illness could be capable of resisting fifty thousand 
fresh troops composed of the flower of French chivalry. 

The battle began the next morning at eleven 
o'clock. The English archers discharged upon the 
feudal cavalry a shower of arrows which did terrible 
effect. The spot where that cavalry stood was soft 
and cut up by the horses, in such a manner that they 
could hardly move. Their armour, besides, was ex- 
tremely heavy, and they were so closely packed 
together that they had great difficulty in moving their 
arms to strike the enemy, except those who were at 
the first rank. The English archers, lightly clad, 
seeing them thus discomfited, threw away their bows 
and arrows and seizing their swords, axes, and mallets 
tipped with lead, rushed amidst the French. They 
knocked them down as though they were heaps ; you 
might have thought they were striking so many anvils ; 
thus the noble Frenchmen fell upon the top of one 
another ; some were smothered to death ; others 
killed or taken prisoners. 

Never was there a more complete, or more humili- 
ating, defeat ; the proud French knights had been 
vanquished, not by English noblemen and gentlemen, 
but by merely archers on foot, by mercenaries five 
imes less in numbers. Eight thousand gentils ho mines 



SEVERE LOSSES OF THE FRENCH. 



243 



remained on the battle-field, notwithstanding prodigies 
of valour ; amongst them were the Duke of Brabant, 
and the Count de Nevers, both brothers of the Duke 
of Burgundy, the Duke of Bar, the Duke d'Alen^on, 




and the Constable d'Albret ; the Duke d'Orleanswas 
severely wounded and remained for a long time 



amongst the dead. 



The Duke of Burgundy on hearing of the disaster 



244 FRESH MASSACRES IN PARIS. 

at Azincourt, pretended to be very indignant, and 
marching towards Paris at the head of his army, 
announced loudly his intention of chastising the 
English, and of restoring the king to the full enjoy- 
ment of his power ; in reality his only desire was to 
reconquer his own authority. On arriving, however, 
he found not only that Armagnac (now created Con- 
stable of France and Superintendent-General of the 
finances) had forestalled him, but that an express 
order of the king prohibited him (John the Fearless) 
from entering the capital. Nothing daunted, the 
Duke of Burgundy issued a manifesto which secured 
to him the good- will of several important towns such as 
Reims, Chalons, Troyes, Auxerre, Amiens, and Rouen, 
and having succeeded in obtaining the help of a 
young man named Perrinet Leclerc, whose father was 
warden of the gate of Saint Germain, he entered Paris 
by night followed by his soldiers, and made a fresh 
appeal to the butchers and flayers. The massacre 
which followed was terrible ; the Constable d'Armagnac 
the Chancellor of France, the bishops of Saintes, 
Coutances, Evreux, Senlis, and Bayeux, the Abbot of 
Saint Corneille at Compiegne, two presidents in the 
Court of Parliament, and a crowd of noblemen 
citizens, and soldiers were put to the sword ; the total 
number of persons killed amounted to eight h undrd 
some say to fifteen hundred. In vain did one of the 
staunchest Bourguignons^ Villiers de ITsle Adam and 
the Provost of Paris, endeavour to stop the fury of the 
hangman Capeluche and of his followers. "A fig for 
your justice and your pity !" they answered. " Cursed 
of God may those traitors the Armagnacs be ! They 



CAPITULATION OF ROUEN. 245 

are English, they are dogs. They had already embroi- 
dered standards for the King of England and wanted 
to plant them on he gates of the city. They used to 
make us work for nothing, and when we asked what 
was our due, they would say to us : ' Scoundrels, have 
you not a penny wherewith to purchase a rope and 
hang yourselves ? ' In the devil's name, plead no more 
for them ; what you may say will be of no use." The 
Provost of Paris dare not resist those infuriated men. 
" Do what you please," said he, turning his head aside. 

One month after these massacres, the Duke of Bur- 
gundy and Queen Isabelle returned to Paris (July 14, 
1418); the national party seemed hopelessly destroyed, 
and whilst Charles, Duke of Touraine, and now 
Dauphin, through the death of his two elder brothers, 
had retired to Poitiers with the view of organizing 
resistance against the English and the Bourgiiignons 
combined, Henry V. was carrying on his triumphal 
progress through Normandy. Favoured by the avowed 
complicity of the Duke of Burgundy, he had taken 
Caen, Argentan, Alen^on, Bayeux, and finally Rouen 
which capitulated on the i8th of January, 1419, after 
a long and stubborn resistance. 

This last catastrophe led to a loud manifestation of 
the national spirit, and John the Fearless was, so to 
say, compelled to meet the Dauphin at a conference 
with view to a reconciliation. Corbeil was selected as 
the place of rendezvous^ and a second interview was 
appointed to be held on the bridge of Montereau 
(September 10, 141 9). Tanguy Duchatel, who 
accompanied the Dauphin, had promised that no 
treachery was contemplated, and that the Duke of 



246 THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY MURDERED. 

Burgundy need entertain no suspicion ; however a cr}^ 
of alarm was raised, and Tanguy Duchatel seizing a 
battle-axe struck down the unfortunate duke who fell 
on his knees and was immediately despatched. The 




excitement created in Paris by this act of undoubted 
treachery can easily be imagined ; and although the 
followers of the Dauphin certainly represented the 
French party, IsabcUe of Bavaria induced the new 



TREATY OF TROYES. 247 

Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, to conclude with 
Henry V. negotiations which ultimately led to the 
infamous treaty of Troyes (May 21, 1420) which 
handed over to England the crown of France and the 
whole kingdom. The wretched Charles VI., utterly 
in the power and under the control of an abandoned 
queen, and of the Bourguignons, signed, without being 
aware of it, the agreement which excluded his own 
son from the throne. 

Henry V. was enthusiastically received in Paris. 
Misery had killed patriotism, and every one thought 
that peace was at last secured. The clergy, in pro- 
cession, came to meet the two kings, and brought 
them the holy relics to kiss. They were then taken 
to Notre Dame where they prayed at the high altar. 
Charles VI. retired thence to the Hotel Saint Pol ; 
the King of England took up his quarters in the 
fortress of the Louvre (December, 1420). 

The task was not quite finished. Some time after- 
wards, the Duke of Burgundy and his mother appeared 
before the King of France, presiding as judge at the 
Hotel Saint Pol, and asked of him vengeance for the 
" piteous death of the late Duke John of Burgundy." 
Henry V. was sitting on the same bench as Charles 
VI. Master Nicolas Raulin, pleading for the plaintiffs, 
asked that Charles, styling himself Dauphin, Tanguy 
Duchatel, and all the murderers of the late duke 
should be led, torch in hand, through the squares of 
Paris in a cart to make honourable amende. The king's 
advocate spoke in the same sense, and the University 
delegates agreed thereto. The king sanctioned the 
prosecution, and Charles was summoned to appear 



24^5 THE DAUPHIN RETIRES BEHIND THE LOIRE, 

within three days before the parliament. Having 
failed to do it, he was condemned, by default, to per- 
petual banishment, and declared to have lost all his 
rights to the crown of France (January 3, 142 1). 
The unfortunate prince, having retired behind the 




Loire, re-organized the national party and appealed 
to his sword. His troops defeated the English at 
Bduge in Anjou, but could not prevent the enemy 
from taking Meaux and several other places. 

Things had come to this extremity when the 



DAETH OF HENRY V. AND CHARLES VT. 249 

almost simultaneous death of the two kings gave 
to the treaty of Troyes an immediate application. 
Henry V. disappeared first (August 31, 1422). Six 
weeks later (October 21st) it was the turn of Charles 
VI, The poor demented monarch was attended at 
his last moments only by his chancellor, his chief 
chamberlain, and his confessor. No prince of the 
blood, not even the Duke of Burgundy, accompanied 
his remains to Saint Denis. An Englishman, the 
Duke of Bedford, had to do the last act of courtesy 
to the King of France. Before closing the tomb, the 
heralds-at-arms, holding their maces reversed, cried, 
"God grant peace to the soul of Charles VI., King of 
France, and God give long life to Henry VI., King of 
France and of England, our sovereign lord ! " 

Intelligent and far-seeing people knew pretty well 
that matters were not settled yet. Henry V. felt so, 
and he is reported to have predicted that his son 
would not retain possession of what had been so 
wonderfully conquered. As for the nation, crushed 
in their noblest sentiments, they began to think that 
the affairs of this world brought nothing but trouble 
and vexation of spirit, and that the care for our 
salvation is the one thing needful. About 142 1 a 
book appeared, the title of which could not fail to 
attract notice, and which commended itself to all 
souls driven to despair. *' L'internelle Consolation '' 
has frequently been ascribed to Jean Charlier de 
Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, and is 
certainly worthy of that truly excellent man. It is a 
translation of the " De imitatione Christi " — a trans- 
lation superior to the original by its boldness, its 



250 AFFAIRS OF THE CHURCH. 

feeling, and its Jmman character. As for the " De 
imitatione" itself, it is the work neither of Thomas a 
Kempis, nor of Gerson ; it is the production of the 
age, and if many nationalities claim it, the fact simply 
shows that the meditations, counsels, and encourage- 
ments it contains express the feelings of a society 
living in the midst of the most terrible corruption. 

The Dauphin Charles was at Meung-sur- Loire when 
the news reached him of his father's death. " Great 
sadness took possession of his heart," says the 
Chronicler Monstrelet ; "he wept very much, and put 
on immediately a black gown. The next day he 
attended mass clothed in a red gown, and then was 
raised the banner of France, and the Dauphin's 
herald-at-arms cried loudly and distinctly : ' Long 
life to Charles VII., King of France ! ' " 

The affairs of the Church claim our attention here, 
for Charles VI. was obliged to interfere with them, 
and the University of Paris took an important part 
in the wranglings, quarrels, and controversies resulting 
from the schism. It w^as not likely that either a 
weak-headed king or rival princes contending for 
power would be able to restore peace to Christendom. 
Two national councils, however, summoned at Paris, 
and the first held under the third dynasty of kings, 
consulted about the best means of restoring peace. 
The only remedy was the convocation ol a general 
council. It was held at Constance from 1414 to 
141 8, and ended in the deposition of the two rival 
Popes, John XXIII. and Benedict XIII., and the 
election of Martin V. (November 11, 1417). For 
the first time, then, and in order to prevent a new 



PIERRE D'AILLY. 2^1 

schism, it was ruled that general councils should be 
superior in authority to the Pope. Heretics were 
also most severely dealt with, John Huss and 
Jerome of Prague, for instance, being sentenced to 
be burnt alive. Amongst the celebrated Frenchmen 
who took an important part in the proceedings of 
the council of Constance, we have already named 
Gerson ; we must not forget Pierre d'Ailly, Cardinal- 
bishop of Cambrai, author of a famous work entitled, 
" Malleus Hsereticorum," and one of the most learned 
divines of the day. The schism and its disastrous 
results told even upon popular literature, and the 
appointment of Cardinal Pietro di Luna as Pope at 
Avignon inspired Eustache Deschamps, whom we 
have had already occasion to mention. As a French- 
man and a Catholic he could not restrain his indigna- 
tion, and composed a poem entitled, " Du Schisme de 
I'Eglise qui est aujourd'hui moult troublee par la Lune.'* 
The pun is a wretched one, no doubt, and the joke 
in bad taste, but it is the honest, straightforward 
expression of a true patriot. All the planets, all 
the powers of heaven, says Deschamps, have had their 
turn — 

" Mercure, Mars, Jupiter et Venus, 
Et chalcun d'eux ensemble, le souleil, 
Ont par longtemps regne, et Saturnus." 

Now a fresh competitor arises, claiming absolute 
power over the firmament ; the poet cannot conceal 
his feelings of despair — 

*'.... Tout perira : c'est mon opinion, 
Puisque je voy vouloir regner la Lune." 

The protest of Eustache Deschamps availed naught 



252 " APPARITION DE MAISTRE JEHAN DE MEUNG,'' 

and Pietro di Luna was promoted under the name of 
Benedict XII 1. 

We all remember the ingenious way in which 
Montesquieu and Voltaire use fiction as a convenient 
way of lashing the vices of their contemporaries and 
denouncing the corruption which eats up society. 
Honore Bonnet, Prior of Salons in Provence, had 
recourse to that style of composition, and in his 
"Apparition de Maistre Jehan de Meung" he in- 
troduced the character of a Turk who takes upon 
himself to lecture Christians, even popes and car- 
dinals. Exempt of passions and of prejudices, com- 
pletely disinterested in the things he sees around 
him, during the course of a trip to Western Europe, 
the stranger deplores the results of the schism ; he 
feels that discussions on matters of faith arouse in 
man all his worst passions — 

" Pour foy laisse pere son fils 
Le frere son frere en peril, 
L'ami son ami mettre a mort." 

As Luther was to do later on, our Saracen visits 
Rome, and he plainly discovers there the source of all 
the evils which afflict the Church. A general reform 
is needed, and h the chair of St. Peter is not filled 
by popular election, the faithful will decline to follow 
unworthy leaders. 

" Mais je voy, le temps est venus, 
Qu'ils ne en seront plus creus ; 
Car li mondes voit per expres 
Leurs oultrages et leurs exces." 

One more person remains to be named in connec- 
tion with the French expression of reform in matters 



NICOLAS DE CLEMANGIS. 



253 



ecclesiastical, and that is Nicolas de Clemangis. A 
faithful churchman, as well as a staunch representative 
of the University of Paris, he denounced the corrup- 
tion of the Church in a pamphlet (" De corruptione 
ecclesiae ") which, although written in Latin, is the 
utterance of a true Frenchman, and which brings 
before our eyes a faithful picture of France during 
the fifteenth century. Nicolas de Clemangis has 
often been regarded as a precursor of the reformers ; 
he was really a Galilean of the school to which 
Bossuet afterwards belonged. 

We see to what low estate France had sunk ; it 
seemed as if she stood on the brink of a precipice, 
and the question was how she could recover her 
liberty, her unity, and her national existence. 




XIII. 

CHARLES VII. — END OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' 

WAR. 
(1422-1461.) 

There were two kings in France when the corpse 
of Charles VI. was lowered down into the grave at 
Saint Denis. The one, an infant nine months old, was 
grandson of the late monarch on his mother's side ; 
his two uncles governed in his name, the Duke of 
Bedford, France ; and the Duke of Gloucester, England. 
There seemed, at first, no opposition to Henry VI. ; 
he had been acknowledged by the parliament, the 
university, the Duke of Burgundy, the Queen Isabelle 
of Bavaria, and the principal members of the nobility. 
His rule was obeyed in Paris, He de France, Picardy, 
Artois, Flanders, Champagne, and Normandy, that is 
to say, nearly all the provinces north of the Loire ; 
in the South, Guienne owned his sway. 

The other king, contemptuously designated as the 
king of Bourges, because he had been proclaimed in 
Berry, was the only surviving son of Charles VI., a 
young man of nineteen, graceful, but of a delicate 
constitution, a good scholar, timid, reserved, and too 
fond of pleasure. Touraine, Orleanais, Berry, Bour- 



BATTLES OF CRAVANT AND OF VERNEUIL. 255 

bonnais, Auvergne, Languedoc, Dauphine, and Lyon- 
nais were the only provinces which recognized his 
authority. The reign of Charles VII. began in a 
most disastrous manner, and the two successive 
defeats endured by his troops, at Cravant (1423) 
and at Verneuil (1424) seemed to prove that France 
must now submit definitively to English rule. 

The great advantage of Charles VII. was his 
nationality; the domination of foreigners might be 
endured, but it was detested by the majority of 
Frenchme-n, and the pride, the sternness with which 
they exercised their authority became day by day 
more hateful. A lively chansonnier^ Olivier Basselin, 
encouraged in spirited songs his countrymen to drive 
the enemy out of the land : 

" Entre vous, genz de village, 
Qui aimez le roy Fran9oys, 
Prenez chacun bon courage, 
Pour combattre les Engloys. 
Prenez chascun une houe 
Pour mieux les desraciner. 



Ne craignez point, allez battre 

Ce's, godons {G-d d-7i), panches a poys {paunches ftcll of peas). 

Car ung de nous en vault quatre, 

Au moins en vault-il bien troys." 

Alain Chartier, another patriotic writer, exhorted 
the clergy, the nobility, and the people to union as 
the only resource for saving France. The Duke 
d'Alengon made prisoner by the English , at the 
Battle of Verneuil, refused to purchase his liberty by 
subscribing the clauses of the Treaty of Troyes. The 
marriage of Charles VII. with Mary of Anjou had 



256 STRENGTHENING THE POWER OF CHARLES VII. 

attached to his cause not only that powerful family, 
but the house of Lorraine ; the Count of Foix, 
Governor of Languedoc, declared that his conscience 
obliged him to recognize Charles VII. as the lawful 
king. The sword of constable given to Arthur de 
Richcmont had had the effect of reconciling to the 
national cause Richemont's brother, John VI., Duke 
of Brittany. This was a most important result, for 
a number of valiant soldiers and distinguished captains 
belonging to that province followed, of course, in the 
same direction. Duguesclin's fellow-countrymen de- 
voted to the service of France their courage and their' 
heroism. By dismissing from his person, on Riche- 
mont's advice, Tanguy Duchatel, and the other actors 
in the tragedy of the Bridge of Montereau, Charles 
VI I. was paving the way towards his reconciliation 
with the Duke of Burgundy ; Gloucester's imprudent 
conduct made this event more probable still. We 
must remember that if the English had become 
masters of Paris, and obtained the Treaty of Troyes, 
it was entirely owing to Philip the Good. The Duke 
of Bedford, Regent of France on behalf of Henry VI., 
knew this perfectly well, and accordingly made a 
point of keeping on the best terms with the Duke 
of .Burgundy. Gloucester, on the contrary, by marry- 
ing Jacqueline, Countess of Holland, Hainault, and 
the neighbouring provinces, had become master of a 
district which Philip the Good was by no means dis- 
posed to see fall into the hands of a foreign prince. 

These various circumstances all tended to strengthen 
the power of Charles VII. The provincial towns, on 
their part, were beginning to show signs of resistance 



SIEGE OF MONTARGIS. 257 

to the English — Montargis, for instance, which, com- 
manded by La Faille, stood bravely a siege of three 
months. At the end of that time the garrison sent 
word to the king that they had neither provisions nor 
ammunition left. Dunois and La Hire started imme- 
diately at the head of sixteen hundred men intending 
to force their way into the town. As they were going 
along La Hire met a priest from whom he requested 
absolution. " Confess your sins, then," said the eccle- 
siastic. " I have no time to do so," was the answer, 
''for I am in a hurry to fall upon the English ; besides, 
I have done all that soldiers are wont to do." The 
chaplain having rather hesitatingly pronounced the 
sentence of absolution. La Hire knelt immediately by 
the wayside, and said aloud : " God, I pray Thee to do 
this day on La Hire's behalf what Thou wouldst that 
La Hire should do for Thee, supposing he was God 
and Thou wast La Hire." Having thus quieted his 
conscience, though in a somewhat uncanonical manner, 
he attacked the English and obliged them to raise 
the siege of Montargis. 

Orleans was the city the possession of which must 
needs be of the highest consequence to the English, 
as being the key to Berry, Poitou, and Bourbonnais. 
Orleans once taken, nothing remained to " the king 
of Bourges " except Languedoc and Dauphine. The 
next year, therefore (1428), the Duke of Bedford de- 
termined upon acting more vigorously than ever, and, at 
the head of an army of ten thousand men, part of 
whom had landed at Calais, under the command of 
Lord Salisbury, whilst the others belonged to the garri- 
son of Normandy, he marched towards Orleans. On 



258 SIEGE OF ORLEANS. 

his road he took Jargeau, Janville, Meung, Thoury, 
Beaugency, Marchenoir, and La Ferte Hubert. They 
arrived before the place on the 12th of October, 1428, 
and immediately set about building a series of forta- 
lices or small basiiles, the command of which was 
assigned to the most renowned captains, such as 
William de la Poole, Earl of Suffolk, Lord Talbot, 
and William Glasdale, who had sworn to put to death 
every man, woman, and child in Orleans. The su- 
preme direction was entrusted to the Earl of 
Salisbury. 

The city must be saved at any cost ; Charles VIL 
appealed to the nobility and to the States-General. 
He obtained 100,000 crowns — a large sum indeed, 
considering the miserable condition to which France 
was reduced. The bravest routiers, Boussac, Dunois, 
Xaintrailles, La 'Hire placed themselves at the head 
of the garrison. The citizens, determined upon making 
a stout resistance, raised a municipal tax, and formed 
themselves into thirty- four companies, each of which 
undertook to defend one of the towers which stood 
out from the city walls. The suburbs were destroyed 
for fear of their getting into the power of the enemy. 
Artillery played a conspicuous part in the siege of 
Orleans ; that of the English was badly served, and- 
excited the merriment of the besieged, who made fun 
of those eighty pound cannon balls which killed no 
one. The Orleanese, on the contrary, had excellent 
gunners, and each piece had its special part and 
particular duty. Some of the episodes connected 
with the siege are amusing. Here is one : At dinner 
time, one day, a lad, walking on the ramparts, found a 




< 
ij 
o 

o 

o 



26o ''battle of the herrings." 

cannon read}^ loaded, and fired it. The ball killed 
the Earl of Salisbury, to whom William Glasdal - was 
at that very moment saying, " My lord, you see your 
city." The greater part of the winter thus passed. 
In February, however, a stratagem which might have 
saved Orleans was on the point of putting it in the 
possession of the English. The Count of Clermont, 
who was arriving to the assistance of the besieged 
with a powerful reinforcement, wished to carry off a 
convoy of herrings sent by the Duke of Bedford to 
the besiegers for the season of Lent. He unfortu- 
nately failed with the loss of between four and five 
hundred men. This " Battle of the Herrings " tho- 
roughly disheartened the French. All their chief 
leaders gave up Orleans as hopelessly lost. The 
Count of Clermont retired, taking away with him the 
Chancellor, the Bishop of Orleans himself, La Hire, 
and two thousand men. An appeal was uselessly 
made to the Duke of Burgundy ; the Orleanese were 
themselves beginning to debate whether it was not 
better to live as subjects of the King of England than 
not to live at all. It was then that Joan of Arc 
appeared. 

For some time an almost universal presentiment 
had spread that France was to be saved by a woman. 
The prophecies of Merlin said so, and to those 
prophecies the superstitious part of the population 
gave the utmost credence. Let us say a few words 
of the wonderful person whom heaven had destined 
to restore the nationality of France. 

Joan was born at the small village of Domremy, in 
Lorraine, on the 6th of January, 141 2. Her father's 




JOAN OF ARC. {Statue by Lefetivre.) 



262 yOAN OF ARC, 

name was Jacques d'Arc, her mother's, Isabelle 
Romee. It was a family of honest, hard-working 
agriculturists, fearing God, and bringing up their 
children with the utmost care. Joan grew up till the 
age of thirteen surrounded by the best examples, at 
spending her time in tending her father's flocks, 
and, when indoors, in plying her distaff 

One summer's day, about the hour of noon, whilst 
she was in the garden belonging to her father's cot- 
tage, she saw a brilliant light in the direction of the 
church, and heard a voice saying to her, " Joan, be a 
kind and good child ; go often to church." She was 
thoroughly frightened. By and by she had visions ; 
the archangel Saint Michael, Saint Margaret, and 
Saint Catherine conversed familiarly with her, and ap- 
peared to her accompanied by millions of angels. 
"Joan," they said, "you must go to France." On one 
occasion Saint Michael told her to go to the assistance 
of the King of France, and restore to him his kingdom. 
She answered, trembling : " My Lord, I am only a 
poor girl, and I could neither ride nor take the com- 
mand of men-at-arms." The voice continued :/'You 
must go to maistre Robert de Baudricourt, captain of 
Vaucouleurs, and he will have you taken to the king ; 
Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine will come to your 
assistance." 

For several years Joan resisted, frightened at the 
idea of so new a mission, and disheartened by the 
taunts of her father, who said to her that she had lost 
her senses. One of her uncles, at last, allowing him- 
self to be persuaded, accompanied her to Robert de 
Baudricourt. The news of the distress of Orleans had 



yOAN OF ARC. 263 

reached her, and her voices kept repeating : *' Hasten ! 
hasten ! " The captain of Vaucouleurs, in the first 
place, laughed at her. Nothing daunted, she ex- 
claimed : " My lord captain, know that God, for some 
time, has made known unto me and ordered me on 
several occasions to go to the Dauphin who ought to 
oe, and is, the true King of France ; he is to deliver 
unto me men-at-arms, with whom I shall raise the 
siege of Orleans, and take the king to Reims to be 
anointed/' Baudricourt at last yielded. He gave Joan 
a sword and an escort, and dismissed her, without 
having much confidence in the success of her mission, 
saying : " Go, and happen what may ! " 

On the 5th of March, 1429, about noon, Joan of 
Arc, dressed in military attire, entered the small town 
of Chinon, where Charles VH. happened to be. He 
gave her audience, but in order to put her to the test, 
ne concealed himself amongst the lords and noblemen 
who formed his court. Led by her voices^ she went 
straight up to him, and said : " God grant you a good 
life, noble prince." "I am not the king," answered 
Charles ; and, pointing to one of the lords present, 
who was richly dressed : " Here is the king." Joan, 
without allowing herself to be disconcerted, exclaimed : 
" In God's name, gentle prince, it is you who for a 
positive certainty are the king, and no one else." 
Charles then asked her her name, and what she wanted. 
" Gentle Dauphin," she answered, " my name is Joan 
the Maid [La Pucelle), and the King of heaven bids me 
tell you that you shall be anointed and crowned at 
Reims, and that you shall be lieutenant for the King 
of heaven, who is King of France." She then whis- 



264 yOAN OF ARC. 

pered to him a few words, at which Charles was very 
much astonished, and very joyous ; then, raising her 
voice, she added : " I tell you, in God's name, that you 
are the true heir of France, and son of the king." 

Charles VII. was not yet completely satisfied, and 
he resolved to bring Joan of Arc before a committee 
of clergymen and theologians, who should put to her 
a variety of questions in order to test the validity of 
her mission, and to make quite sure of her orthodoxy. 
This tedious and puerile examination lasted some 
time, and having proved satisfactory, the next thing 
was to equip the " maiden " for her venturesome ex- 
pedition. La Hire and Xaintrailles, two of the most 
distinguished generals on the royalist side, were to 
accompany her to Orleans at the head of a convoy of 
provisions and ammunition. She wanted a weapon, 
and her voices revealed to her that in the church of 
Saint Catherine of Fierbois there was behind the altar 
a sword of which the hilt was marked with five crosses. 
The indication proved perfectly correct, and from that 
day Joan of Arc never parted with that sword, 
although she did not use it, not willing, ^she said, to 
kill any person. She further procured a white stan- 
dard adorned with gold Jleiirs-de-fys ; on one side was 
the representation of the Almighty in a cloud, at His 
feet two angels, with the inscriptions— y/i-?/.$", Marie ; 
the other side gave the escutcheon of France supported 
by two angels. Another standard, of smaller size, 
which she caused to be made at the same time, repre- 
sented an angel offering a lily to the blessed Virgin. 

Joan of Arc's small army was a perfect contrast to 
the lawless, brutal, and fierce ecoi'cheiirs and routiers 



yOAN OF ARC, 265 

which at that time devastated not only France, but the 
whole of Europe. It was preceded by a group of 
priests singing hymns ; the main body consisted of 
adventurers and ribands whom La Pucelles influence 
had quite transformed. No swearing was allowed, 




MEDAL OF JOAN OF ARC. 



and this for La Hire had all the character of a down- 
right privation. Pitying his distress she allowed him 
to swear " by his staff " {^par son baton). 

The expedition arrived under the walls of Orleans on 



266 BATTLE OF PAT AY. 

the 29th of April, 1429. Dunois came to meet Joan, 
and introduced her into the town, with her convoy 
and her men-at-arms. The inhabitants received her 
with great demonstrations of enthusiasm. 

The siege of Orleans had lasted seven months 
alread)^ ; in ten days Joan of Arc raised it. One of 
the English bastiles was named Rouen, another Paris, 
and a third, London. How humiliating for the 
besiegers to have to abandon positions bearing such 
proud designations ! But it must needs be done. 
Orleans once delivered, Joan of Arc went to join the 
king at Tours, and urged him to march at once with 
his army towards Reims, where the ceremony of con- 
secration was to take place. " I shall not live much 
more than one year from hence ; we must think of 
toiling hard, for there is much to be done." A start 
was made, and of the most brilliant kind; Jargeau, 
Meung-sur- Loire, and Beaugency were taken from the 
English. On the i8th of June a decisive victory was 
won at Patay, between Orleans and Chateaudun, in 
which Talbot and several English captains of distinc- 
tion were taken prisoners. No serious obstacle now 
stood in the way of Charles VI h After a two days' 
siege Troyes was carried ; a few days later the Bishop 
of Chalons brought to the king the keys of that city. 
Finally, on the i6th of July, 1429, Charles entered 
Reims, having by his side Joan of Arc, who carried 
her standard ; the ceremony of the coronation was 
fixed for the 17th, which happened to be a Sunday. 

The situation of the Duke of Bedford had become 
rather difficult. The national sentiment was thoroughly 
roused in France ; not only had the English given up 



CAPTURE OF yOAN OF ARC. 267 

all hope of conquering the districts of the centre, they 
were beginning to lose their possessions in the northern 
provinces ; the towns of Crecy, Provins, Coulommiers, 
and Chateau-Thierry had driven away the foreign 
garrisons. Encouraged by this awakening of patriotism, 
the generals of Charles marched towards Paris, and 
attacked the gate of St. Honore ; unsuccessful there, 
they fell back in the direction of Compiegne, which 
they took after a protracted siege. This was to be the 
last step in the career of the Maid of Orleans. She 
had lately been repeatedly warned by her voices that 
she was to be captured before the festival of St. John, 
but how and when she knew not. One day, after 
hearing mass and taking the holy communion, she said 
to those who surrounded her : " My children and dear 
friends, I warn you that I have been sold and betrayed. 
I shall soon be put to death ; I entreat and beseech 
you to pray God for me." 

It was during a sally headed by La Pucelle that the 
fatal event took place. Either by mistake or by treason, 
the drawbridge was raised before she could re-enter 
the town, and she was seized by about twenty soldiers. 
She surrendered to a knight of the household of the 
Duke of Burgundy. In spite of an appeal made by 
the University of Paris, Joan was given up to the 
English for the sum of 10,000 livres, and a judge was 
appointed to try her. The person selected for that 
wretched task was a certain Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of 
Beauvais, a great champion of the English and of the 
Bourguignons. He had taken an active part in the 
excesses of the Cabochians, and had caused himself 
to be named judge to try the Armagnac clergy. For 



268 



CORONATION OF HENRY VL 



this piece of zeal he had been rewarded with a bishopric 
by the Duke of Burgundy, and now he was resolved 
to curry favour with the English by putting Joan of 
Arc to death. It was, to all intents and purposes, a 
foregone conclusion ; the trial had taken place at 
Rouen, the sentence that the unfortunate heroine 
should be burnt alive was carried out on the 30th of 
May, 143 1. Twenty-four years later, at the request of 
Charles VII., Pope Calixtus III. ordered the trial to 




STATUE OF JOAN OF AUG. 

be revised, and on the 7th of July, 1456, the rehabili- 
tation of the Maid of Orleans was solemnly proclaimed. 
The situation of the English had not improved by this 
tragic event ; King Henry VI. was crowned indeed 
at Paris" (December 17, 143 1), but this ceremony 
created a great deal of dissatisfaction amongst the 
people. Why was the officiating priest an English- 
man, the Cardinal of Winchester, and not a French- 



CONFERENCE AT ARRAS, 269 

man? Why did not one single French lord attend? 
Why did not the usual acts of kindness and royal 
generosity follow upon the coronation, such as libera- 
tion of prisoners, remission of taxes, money gratuities? 
Then the Duke of Burgundy was getting weary of his 
foreign allies; he had had to put up with their haugh- 
tiness and their pretensions. Notwithstanding the signal 
services he had rendered them, he had never received 
from them the slightest assistance in his times of 
distress and of embarrassment. All these circumstances 
were cleverly turned to use by the Constable de Riche- 
mont, whose talents as a politician were fully equal to 
his courage ; and the only thing which prevented Philip 
the Good from breaking off his alliance with the Eng- 
lish was a kind of chivalrous point d'honneur he felt 
bound to respect. 

Meanwhile a general conference took place at 
Arras with the view of considering the terms of a 
truce, or possibly a permanent peace. All the 
European states sent representatives — the Pope, the 
emperor, the kings of Navarre, Castile, Arragon, 
Portugal, Sicily, Naples, Cyprus, Poland, Denmark ; 
the large towns, the University of Paris had their 
delegates. The King of France was represented by 
Constable de Richemont and eighteen lords; the 
King of England by the Cardinal of Winchester and 
a large number of barons ; the Duke of Burgundy 
appeared in person. 

The English were the first to state their preten- 
sions They wanted merely a iriice and the marriage 
of Henry VI. with a daughter of Charles VII. The 
French ambassadors, however, declared that their 



270 RICHEMONT ENTERS PARIS. 

mission was expressly to conclude a peac^, and they 
insisted upon the King of England giving up his 
pretended rights to the French crown and to all the 
provinces which he occupied on the Continent 
These terms were contemptuously rejected, and on 
the 1st of September the English delegates an- 
nounced their intention of leaving the assembly and 
returning to England. The Pope's envoys took the 
opportunity of renewing their entreaties with the 
Duke of Burgundy, and this prince, already more 
than half disposed to give way, was determined by 
the news he received — (i) of the death of the Duke 
of Bedford at Chantereine, near Rouen ; (2) of the 
approaching end of the old queen, Isabelle of 
Bavaria. Considering himself as relieved, by this 
twofold event, from his former engagements, he 
signed the treaty of Arras (1436), independently of 
the English, The conditions were both onerous 
and humiliating for Charles VII., who had, in the 
first place, to disown the murder of John the 
Fearless, and to make a kind of amende honorable ; 
and, in the next, to give over to the Duke of 
Burgundy the countships of Auxerre, Macon, several 
towns on the Somme, besides 400,000 gold crowns. 
On the other hand, he now had Paris, and that was 
an ample compensation for the rest. The citizens 
called in the Constable de Richemont, and opened 
to him the gates of Saint Jacques on the 29th of 
May, 1436. Lord Willoughby and the fifteen thou- 
sand English soldiers who defended Paris shut them- 
selves up within the Bastile. They would have 
been a rich booty if it had only been possible to 



CHARACTER OF CHARLES VII. 27 1 

reach them, for the number of noblemen who com ■ 
posed the main force of that army could not have got 
off without paying a heavy ransom ; but Richemont 
could not undertake the siege of the fortress for want 
of ammunition, artillery, &c. He had therefore to 
accept the terms offered by the enemy, to wit, that 
they might retire with all their goods and effects, 
accompanied by those who had cast in their lot with 
them. On that condition they gave up the Bastile 
to the French, left Paris by the gate of Saint 
Antoine, embarked on the Seine, and retired to 
Rouen. 

The first part of the reign of Charles VII. may be 
said to end here. His moral character had never 
been particularly severe, and to the end he indulged 
his passions very freely. His liaison with Agnes 
Sorel is a case in point, and although this episode has 
been ridiculousl}^ exaggerated, yet it has doubtless a 
foundation in fact. But whereas, up to the year 
1436, he had shown himself careless, indolent, and 
neglectful of his duties, he now, thanks to age and 
experience combined, really played the part of a 
king, and sought the advice of good and trustworthy 
councillors. His wife, Marie d'Anjou, and his mother- 
in-law, Yolande, had always enjoyed much influence 
over him. Jean Bureau, Master of the Artillery, the 
banker [argentier) Jacques Coeur, Etienne Chevalier, 
who was secretary to the king, Guillaume Cousinot, 
Master of Requests, may be named amongst the most 
notable of his advisers. Pierre and Jean de Breze, 
Xaintrailles, La Hire, Chabannes, and Dunois served 
him on the battle-field. Let us notice that all the 



272 END OF THE WAR. 

persons we have just named belonged either to the 
bourgeoisie or to the petite noblesse ; the Constable, 
Count de Richemont, was the only real nobleman in the 
king's council, and he had been equally active against 
the monarch's favourites and against the English. 

The entry of Charles VII. in Paris took place with 
a great deal of pomp and ceremony. The king only 
remained three weeks there, and started for the 
southern provinces, where he had to encounter the 
English on several occasions. He wrested from them 
Marmande, Dax, Saint Sever, La Reole, Tartas, Blaye, 
and received the homage of some of the principal 
lords in Languedoc and Guienne. The previous year 
he had made a campaign in the Eastern districts, and 
distinguished himself at the siege of Pontoise. 

The first year's truce (1444-49) had come to an 
end, and France was in a condition to resume 
hostilities with great chances of success. The royal 
forces invaded Normandy, and occupied the whole of 
that province after two campaigns, crowned by the 
battle of Formigny (1450). Dunois then marched 
into Guienne, and made himself master of Bordeaux 
and Bayonne (145 i). Two years later the English, 
willing to retrieve their disasters, made a fresh 
attempt south of the Garonne, and succeeded at 
first ; but the death of Talbot, killed at the battle of 
Castillon (1453), was a fatal blow struck at the 
invaders. Charles VII. entered Bordeaux in triumph 
on the 19th of October, 1453. The Hundred Years' 
War was thus finished, and the English retained in 
France merely Calais and two small towns in the 
neighbourhood. 



THE " PRAGUERIE.'' 273 

The enemies thus subdued, the time had come at 
last for introducing into France a thorough system of 
reforms, and for reorganizing the administration of 
the kingdom. The state of the army required the 
king's earhest care, and the energy with which he 
went to work proved that he felt the gravity of the 
situation. His first attempt was made nearly twenty 
years before the battle of Castillon, and it resulted in 
a civil war. Charles VII. assembled the States- 
General at Orleans in October, 1439, and obtained 
from them a subsidy of 1,200,000 livres, which was 
to be raised by means of a permanent tax. The 
object of this subsidy was to pay a regular body of 
gendarmerie, thus placing the armed forces of the 
realm under the king's immediate authority, and 
crippling the power of the feudal lords. So bold a 
measure incensed, as may well be supposed, both the 
aristocracy and also the ecorckeurs, who saw their 
occupation entirely gone. They rose against the 
king, and selected as their leader the Dauphin 
Louis, who was destined to be, when on the throne, 
the most energetic opponent of the system he now 
undertook to support. This rebellion was called the 
Praguerie, by allusion to the revolt of the Hussites of 
Prague, in Germany, and it brought together, by a 
singular contrast, both the elite of the nobility, such 
as the Dukes of Bourbon and of Alengon, the Counts 
of Dunois and of Vendome, on the one side, and, on 
the other, the principal leaders of the routiers, 
Antoine and Jacques de Chabannes, for instance, the 
bastard of Bourbon, Jean de la Roche, and Jean 
Sanglier. Charles VII., however, had no difficulty in 



274 ''ORDONNANCE D'ORLEANS. 

suppressing this insurrection. He had on his side, at 
once, all the middle classes, the bourgeoisie and 
the common people. A few measures of severity 
frightened the rebels, and when they saw the Count 
de Saint Pol sewed in a sack and thrown into the 
river, they understood that this was no joking matter. 
The Dauphin thought better of the false step he had 
taken, and the Duke of Burgundy felt the necessity 
of keeping quiet. Two expeditions, the one in 
Switzerland and the other of Lorraine, disposed of 
the remainder of the ecorcheurs, and the king was at 
last able to carry out the scheme of reform sketched 
out in the Ordonnance d' Orleans. In 1445 the French 
army was reduced to fifteen companies of one hundred 
lances, each lance including the man-at-arms, his page^ 
three archers, and one inferior retainer {coiitillier)^ all 
mounted. They did garrison duty in the principal 
towns, and the most important of them having 
only twenty or at the outside thirty lances, the 
citizens were numerically stronger than the soldiers, 
and therefore able to repress any disorder which 
might arise. Strange to say, the old routiers were 
very anxious to belong to those coinpagnies d'ordon- 
nance, and vacancies were immediately filled. Charles 
VII. had thus at his disposal a body of nine thousand 
picked cavalry, and those 7vntiers who could find no 
occupation were compelled to return to their own 
homes, under threat of severe punishment, if they 
disturbed the public peace. 

Three years later (1448) another royal decree pro- 
vided for the organization of the French infantry. 
Every one of the 16^000 parishes of which the king- 



THE '' FRANCS- ARCHERS.'' 275 

dom consisted was bound to supply a foot soldier 
properly armed and accoutred, who was to undergo a 
military, training every fete-^d^y and serve the king, 
whenever required to do so, for a pay of four francs a 
month when on duty, besides being exempted from 
certain of the taxes. These francs -archers could not 
be expected to be at the outset accomplished soldiers, 
and the witty poet Villon made great fun of them in 
one of his amusing pieces — 

" Ya-t-il homme, qui a quatre [^avec ses quatre valets) 
Dy-je, ya-t-il quatre qui veuillent 

Combatre a moy? si tost recueillent { = qu''ils relevent de suite) 
Mon gantelet ; vela ( = voila) pour gaige ! 
Par le sang-bieu 1 je ne crains paige, 
S'il n'a point plus de quatorze ans. 
J'ay autresfoys tenu les rencz, 
Dieu mercy ! et gaigne le prix 
Contre cinq Angloys que je pris, 

Povres prisonniersdesnuez ( =^depouilUs de leiirs amies et de leurs habits) 
Si tost que je les euz ruez {=jetiis par terre). 
Ce fut au siege d'Alengon." 

The Fj'anc-archer de Bagnolet, who boasts of having 
made five English soldiers prisoners at the siege of 
Alengon, and who is almost frightened to death by a 
scare-scrow, is a kind of French Falstaff, but we need 
not take him as a fair specimen of the body to which 
he belonged ; in a few years he will become as brave 
as Dunois himself, and his descendants will hold their 
own on all the battle-fields of Europe. 

Financial reforms were quite as urgent as military 
ones. On the 25th of December, 1453, Charles VIL, 
acting on the advice of Jacques Cceur, his argentier, or 
Chancellor of theExchequer,introducedan order which 




PORTRAIT OF JACQUES CCEUR. 



FINANCIAL REFORMS, zyy 

provided for the better management of the finances 
(i) by submitting to a mutual control the various 
officers and boards or committees entrusted with the 
assessment and collecting of the taxes; and (2) bygiving 
a permanent character to these taxes, so far at least 
as the Langued'oil districts were concerned. Lan- 
guedoc, Dauphine, and the provinces south of the 
Loire continued to vote the taxes in their provincial 
assemblies (etats), hence the name of pays d'etats 
which they had by opposition to the pays d' election 
where the subsidies were collected by the agents 
ielus) of the government. This wise reform raised 
the revenues of the state to 2,300,000 livres. 

The institution of a parliament at Toulouse (1443), 
and of another at Grenoble (1453), and the idea partly 
carried out of compiling a code of the custom-laws 
{coutiiines) in use throughout the kingdom, are due Hke- 
wise to Charles VII., and must not be forgotten. In 
the meanwhile the taking of Constantinople by the 
Turks (1453) excited great emotion throughout 
Christendom, and it was thought that the Duke of 
Burgundy would take the command of a new Crusade 
against the infidels. The days of faith and Chris- 
tian fervour, however, had passed away. During the 
Middle Ages fasting and penance would have been 
deemed the only fit preparation for so serious an 
enterprise; now, instead of fasting, there was ban- 
queting, and instead of penance there were jousts and 
tournaments. On second thoughts it appeared that 
Mahomet 11. threatened only the German Empire ; 
accordingly the idea of a Crusade which Philip the 
Good had never seriously entertained, was given up. 



278 DEATH OF CHARLES VII. 

The feudal system was in the last throes of agony, 
but its turbulent representative, the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, did his best to keep it alive and to raise up 
enemies against Charles VII. Amongst the nobles 
thus encouraged in their rebellious course were the 
Duke d'Alengon and the Count d'Armagnac. They 
were both arrested and condemned, the former to 
prison for life, the latter to exile (1456, 1455). The 
Dauphin Louis, sent by his father into the domains 
which belonged to him by virtue of his title, carried 
on his political intrigues with such energy and such 
impudence that Charles VIL, besides sending against 
him Antoine de Chabannes with a body of troops, 
marched towards Lyons with a second army. 
Frightened by this promptness, Louis fled into the 
estates of the Duke of Burgundy, who received him 
with every possible honour, but refused him the 
military assistance he would fain have obtained against 
his father. Louis, however, succeeded so thoroughly 
in frightening Charles VIL, that the wretched King of 
France, weakened, besides, by his indulgences and his 
excesses, fancied that the Dauphin wanted to poison 
him, and he starved himself to death (July 22, 1461). 

The cowardly manner in which Joan of Arc was 
given up to the English, and the condemnation of 
the avgentier, Jacques Coeur, are two actions which 
have done much harm to the reputation of Charles 
VIL Jacques Coeur had originally been a simple 
tradesman. Voyages on the further side of the Alps 
and in the Levant had revealed to him the secret of 
the prosperity which distinguished the great commer- 
cial cities of Italy. Following their example, he went 



JACQUES CCEUR. 279 

to Syria and to Egypt, brought from thence all the 
produce of the East, and had a fleet of his own. 
Charles VIL, who had known him at Bourges, named 
him his ai^gentier royal, and for the space of twelve 
years he took a prominent part in all the most impor- 
tant affairs of the government. His motto was : ''a 
vaillant cceur rien d'iinpossibler Distinguished above 
all others by the clearness of his mind and his severe 
probity, he always contrived to face the financial 
difficulties by which he was surrounded, and drew from 
his own resources, when the national exchequer was 
empty. Thus he advanced to Charles VII. 200,000 
crowns (24,000,000 francs of the present coinage) 
wherewith to conquer Normandy. " Sire," said he, 
" all that I possess belongs to you." , The courtiers 
took him at his word, brought him before the judges 
on a calumnious charge of malversation, divided his 
fortune amongst themselves, and caused him to be 
kept a prisoner in a convent at Beaucaire. His late 
clerks, however, succeeded in getting him out by main 
force, and took him to Rome where he was most 
honourably received by the Pope (1455). He died in 
the next year from a wound received at Chios in a 
fight against the Turks. Another financier, Jean de 
Xaincoings, had been, during the previous year, con- 
demned quite as severely, and quite as unfairly. The 
death of Charles VI I. caused throughout France a great 
deal of sorrow. Having started from Meung-sur- Loire, 
the royal cortege reached Paris on the 5th of August, 
and the funereal ceremony took place on the 8th, at 
Saint Denis. As the corpse was lowered into the 
grave, a herald-at-arms, lowering his mace, exclaimed 



28o 



DEATH OF CHARLES VII. 



"God have in His holy keeping the soul of Charles 
VI I. , the most victorious king"; then, after a 
moment's silence, he added, " Long live the King ! " 
and the crov/d shouted out : " Long live King 
Louis ! " 




XIV. 

LOU I S XI. 

(I46I-I483.) 

It seemed, at the accession of Louis XL, that the 
day for feudaHsm had come at last. Were not all 
the antecedents of Louis XI. a pledge that he would 
restore to the nobility their privileges, their influence, 
their political authority? Was he not the intimate 
friend of the Duke of Burgundy, than whom no 
prince was so completely identified with the feudal 
system ? All these hopes were in the most unex- 
pected manner doomed to be frustrated ; after having 
lost the judicial power under Philip the Fair and his 
sons, and the military prestige during the Hundred 
Years' War, the nobles were now about to be shorn of 
their political greatness. 

The houses or families with which the struggle 
must be carried on were those of Anjou, Brittany, 
and Burgundy. The first included, besides Anjou 
itself, Provence, Maine, and Lorraine, provinces too 
far apart from each other to be able to undertake 
a combined action against the king. Further, the 
chief of that house was at that time "good King 
Rene," a prince more engrossed by art and poetry 




KING REN£. 




JEANNE DE LAVAL. 



284 LOUIS XI. AND FEUDALISM. 

than by politics. The population, under the rule of 
the Duke of Brittany had the decided advantage of 
being bound together by a community of traditions 
and laws, but they were too poor to venture upon a 
war which must necessarily involve a considerable 
expenditure, even supposing the issues were favourable 
to them. 

Remained the formidable house of Burgundy, 
formidable in appearance, and ruling over territories 
which were as rich as they were extensive. Bur- 
gundy, Franche Comte, Picardy, Artois, Flanders, the 
countships of Auxerre and Macon, Bar-sur-Seine, 
Ponthieu, Bourbonnais, the towns on the Somme and 
all the cities of the Netherlands — such were the 
chief constituent parts of the duchy then governed 
by Philip the Good. 

Besides those three houses we must take into 
account the apanages granted to the younger sons, 
and which represented distinct feudatory establish- 
ments (Bourbon, Alengon, Courtenai, Armagnac, &c.). 

There is no doubt that if the numerous provinces 
composing the Duchy of Burgundy had been strongly 
knit together, the task of bringing them under sub- 
mission would have been a most severe one ; but 
the chance of wars and of treaties had made them 
part of the same body, not national affinities ; they 
were not really united together, and Flanders, for 
instance, was only awaiting a favourable opportunity 
to recover its independence. 

The King of France, who had now to cope with all 
these forces, has been so accurately described and 
appreciated by Commines, Sir Walter Scott, and M. 



CHARACTER OF LOUIS XI. 285 

Victor Hugo, that rather than attempt to place before 
our readers a fresh portrait, we feel it safer to quote 
from the pages of one of these distinguished writers. 

" Brave enough for several useful and political 
purposes," says the author of " Quentin Durward," 
" Louis had not a spark of that romantic valour, or of 
the pride generally associated with it, which fought on 
for the point of honour, when the point of utility had 
been long gained. Calm, crafty, and profoundly 
attentive to his own interest, he made every sacrifice, 
both of pride and passion, which could interfere with 
it. He was careful in disguising his real sentiments 
and purposes from all who approached him, and 
frequently used the expressions, ' that the king knew 
not how to reign who knew not how to dissemble; 
and that, for himself, if he thought his very cap knew 
his secrets, he would throw it into the fire.' No man 
of his own, or of any other time, better understood 
how to avail himself of the frailties of others, and 
when to avoid giving any advantage by the untimely 
indulgences of his own." 

" He was by nature vindictive and cruel, even to the 
extent of finding pleasure in the frequent executions 
which he commanded. But, as no touch of mercy ever 
induced him to spare, when he could with safety con- 
demn, so no sentiment of vengeance ever stimulated 
him to a premature violence. He seldom sprung on his 
prey till it was fairly within his grasp, and till all hope 
of rescue was vain ; and his movements were so 
studiously disguised, that his success was generally 
what first announced to the world the object he had 
been manoeuvring to attain." 



286 CORONATION OF LOUIS XI. 

" In like manner, the avarice of Louis gave way to 
apparent profusion, when it was necessary to bribe 
the favourite or minister of a rival prince for averting 
any impending attack, or to break up any alliance 
confederated against him. He was fond of license 
and pleasure ; but neither beauty nor the chase, 
though both were ruling passions, ever withdrew him 
from the most regular attendance to public business 
and the affairs of his kingdom. His knowledge of 
mankind was profound, and he had sought it in the 
private walks of life, in which he often personally 
mingled ; and, though naturally proud and haughty, 
he hesitated not, with an inattention to the arbitrary 
divisions of society which was then thought some- 
thing portentously unnatural, to raise from the lowest 
rank men whom he employed on the most important 
duties, and knew so well how to choose them, that he 
was rarely disappointed in their qualities." 

The whole life of Louis XL was a perfect illus- 
tration of Sir Walter Scott's portrait of him ; the 
ceremony of his coronation which took place as usual 
at Reims, August i8, 146 1, drew together all the 
high barons who reckoned upon a speedy restoration 
of the feudal system. The Duke of Burgundy, 
surrounded by his vassals, took the lead as premier 
peer of the realm ; but when he asked the king for- 
giveness for all those who might have offended him 
when he was Dauphin, Louis granted the request with 
the exception of eight persons whose names he would 
not let be known. 

The entire administration of the state was altered; 
the advisers of Charles VH. were dismissed, and 



League of the common weal. 287 

replaced by men sprung from the lowest classes of 
society ; his physician, Fumee ; his cook, Pierre des 
Habilites ; • his barber, Olivier le Daim, nicknamed 
Olivier le Diable; and Tristan L'Hermite, whom he 
familiarly designated as his confrere, were the persons 
honoured with his confidence. This measure created 
a great deal of irritation, and several hasty and im- 
prudent attempts at reform made about the same 
time heightened the general discontent. The people 
had expected a remission of taxes on account of the 
coronation ; instead of this they were raised from 
1,800,000 livres to 3,000,000, and a riot having taken 
place at Reims, Louis ordered several of the bourgeois 
to be hung, and some to have their ears cut off. The 
university of Paris, and the Parliaments were not 
better treated ; the power of the Church was reduced 
and its privileges curtailed. 

The nobles, equally disappointed and irritated, were 
seeking an opportunity of making Louis XL feel 
their power, when the important purchase of the 
cities of the Somme made by the king from the Duke 
of Burgundy afforded them the pretext they required. 
The son of Philip the Good, the Count de Charolais, 
so celebrated afterwards under the name of Charles 
the Bold, considered this bargain as unfairly forced 
upon an old man taken by surprise ; he, himself, had 
private grievances against the king, and was eager to 
try conclusions with him. Such was the origin of 
what has been called " the league of the common 
weal" {ligue die Bien public). Louis XL, by way of 
counteracting it, published a manifesto addressed to 
the citizens of the "good towns," and to all the 



288 BATTLE OF MONTLHERV. 

kingdom ; this document was favourably received in 
Dauphine, Auvergne, and Languedoc, and in most of 
the large centres of population. The VdiUS,' bourgeoisie, 
amongst others, prepared for a vigorous defence. In 
the meanwhile, the army of the League commanded 
by the Count of Charolais, had mustered at Saint 
Denis ; it consisted of about fourteen hundred men-at- 
arms, and eight thousand archers. After having taken 
possession of some of the neighbouring villages, the 
count made a fruitless attempt to enter the capital, 
and finally met the king's army at Montlhery (July 
i6, 1465). The battle was fought with much spirit 
on both sides, but the royal troops re-entered Paris, 
and Louis immediately began negotiations which led 
to the treaties of Conflans (October 5th) with Charles 
the Bold, and of Saint Maur (October 29th) with the 
confederate princes. By virtue of these two agree- 
ments, the king made to his enemies the most extra- 
ordinary concessions, firmly resolved, at the same 
time, upon setting them at nought on the very earliest 
opportunity. This was destined to happen soon ; a 
quarrel broke out between the Duke of Brittany and 
the Duke of Normandy, and Louis XI. immediately 
invaded this latter province with the view of restoring 
it once again to the authority of the Crown. This 
was a distinct violation of the treaty of Conflans, but 
it was sanctioned by the States-General summoned at 
Tours on the istof April, 1468 ; so the king, backed 
by the nation, ventured at once to propose to the 
King of England the invasion of Picardy, one of the 
domains of Charles the Bold. We say Charles the 
Bold, for Philip the Good had died suddenly, and the 



>a? W e^ 5v^ SbS^^Pf^ 



^ m7 



es^^ 



% 







14;' J"' 



PHILIP THE GOOD AND CHARLES THE BOLD. 



2gO FRANCE AND BURGUNDY. 

dangerous task of thwarting the views and defeating 
the intrigues of the King of France now devolved 
upon a rash and turbulent prince, " who," to use the 
words of Sir Walter Scott, "rushed on danger, because 
he loved it, and on difficulties because he despised 
them. As Louis never sacrificed his interest to his 
passion, so Charles, on the other hand, never sacrificed 
his passion, nor even his humour, to any other con- 
sideration." 

Meanwhile, what had been the result of the boasted 
/i£-iie du bien public ? merely the enriching of certain 
lords bent, as the historian Commines says, upon 
getting out of the monarch all they could, and 
plundering the kingdom. No wonder that Louis XL 
wanted to have his revenge, but Charles the Bold 
hearing of the treacherous proposal made by him to 
the King of England, wrote to him a most impertinent 
letter, full of threats, and lacking the simplest 
forms of courtesy, especially taking into consideration 
the fact that it was addressed by a vassal to his liege 
lord. What was to be done ? Count Dammartin 
and the rest of the officers were for violent measures. 
" In God's name," they said, " if we are only allowed 
to have our own way, we shall soon bring that 
Duke of Burgundy to his senses ! The king makes 
a sheep of himself, and bargains for his fleece and his 
very skin, as if he had not wherewith to protect him- 
self! 'Sdeath ! in his place we had rather venture 
the whole kingdom than allow ourselves to be led 
about in this fashion ! " 

Louis, however, as he was wont, preferred negotiat- 
ing, and it was settled that an interview should take 



LOUIS XI. AT PERONNE. 29 1 

place at Peronne, a town situated on Burgundian 
territory. Was this a snare ? Some persons thought 
so, but the king would now allow himself to be dis- 
suaded, and went to meet the Duke of Burgundy, 
who received him most cordially, embraced him, and 
led him to the castle, where lodgings had been pre- 
pared for his reception. "Now," says Commines,"when 
he came to Peronne, the king had forgotten that he 
had some time before sent two ambassadors for the 
purpose of exciting the inhabitants of Liege against 
the duke. These ambassadors had so well succeeded 
that a great revolt had taken place, and the Liegese 
had already captured the city of Tongres." 

The rage of the Duke of Burgundy can easily be 
imagined ; at the very time when Louis came to treat 
of the conditions of peace, was he thus plotting against 
him, and sowing the seeds of rebellion amongst his 
own subjects ? The first step he took was to make 
quite sure that it would be impossible for his rival 
to escape. When Louis XL, thus made prisoner, 
began to consider that he was shut up in the same 
tower, where in days gone by, the Count of Vermandois 
had put to death Charles the Simple, he could not 
help fearing lest the same destiny was in reserve for 
him ; however, the Duke of Burgundy, though excited 
by many of his advisers to use the most violent 
measures against the king, was satisfied with making 
a new treaty with him, obliging him to the humiliating 
condition of helping to reduce the Liegese into sub- 
mission. On these terms Louis recovered his liberty ; 
he entered Liege wearing the cross of Saint i\ndrew 
of Burgundy on his cap, and shouting Vive Bo2irgogne 



292 CARDINAL BALUE. 

as loud as he could, to the great amazement of the 
inhabitants. The whole affair having come to an 
end, he was allowed " to depart wherever he wished 
to go, after having spent the three most anxious 
weeks of his life." 

The Peronne incident could not fail to excite French 
wit, and to supply food for that satirical spirit which 
has always been such a distinguishing feature amongst 
the Parisians ; the picture shops were full of cari- 
catures referring to Peronne, the little children went 
about the streets singing a complainte about Peronne ; 
magpies, jackdaws, and other talking birds cried out 
Peronne ! Peronne ! The magistrates had to interfere. 
The children were whipped ; the owners of satirical 
birds threatened with condign punishment ; finally, it 
was forbidden under penalty of being hung, to sing 
or compose satires, virelais, rondeaux, ballads, or 
libels casting opprobrium upon our lord the king. 

Scarcely had he returned to France than Louis XL 
sought for a convenient opportunity of tearing to 
shreds the treaty of Peronne. and resuming hostilities ; 
but, in the first place, he endeavoured to win over to 
his side the chief allies of Charles the Bold, and 
principally his own brother, Charles, Duke de Berry. 
These negotiations, however, had produced no result, 
when an unforeseen circumstance proved to Louis that 
he was betrayed by a person in whom he had placed 
all his confidence, namely. Cardinal Balue. The 
unfortunate prelate had to appear before the king, 
together with the Bishop of Verdun, his accomplice ; 
obliged to confess their secret machinations, they were 
shut up separately in iron cages — the cardinal at 



CHARLES THE BOLD INVADES PICARDY. 293 

Onzain, near Blois, and the bishop at the Bastile 
Saint Antoine. They remained prisoners for more 
than ten years. 

This event hastened the reconcih'ation of Louis XI. 
with his brother ; the latter consented to an agree- 
ment which procured for him as an apanage Guienne, 
Agenois, Perigord, Quercy, Saintonge, and Aunis, 
with the title of Duke de Guienne. Charles was thus 
relegated to the South of France, and withdrawn from 
the influence of the Duke of Burgundy. 

Urged on by the Count de Saint Pol, solemnly 
released by the States-General from all obligation to 
keep the treaty of Peronne, emboldened by the state 
of England, by the strength of his own armies, and 
his desire of vengeance; Louis now resolved upon re- 
newing hostilities. In the first instance, he summoned 
Charles the Bold to appear before him at Ghent ; 
furious, disconcerted, warned besides by the Duke 
de Bourbon, my Lord of Burgundy assembled an 
army in all haste, and marched into Picardy ; Roye, 
Montdidier, Amiens, Saint Quentin, were taken by 
the French. Vainly did he write to France and to 
England for the purpose of bribing soldiers and 
politicians into his service. He re-crossed the Seine, 
burnt Picquigny to the ground, failed in his endeavour 
to take Amiens, was obliged to submit, and ended by 
signing a truce in April, 147 1. 

Charles the Bold, following the example of his 
rival, reckoned upon the power of intrigues to make 
up for his military failures in the north. He employed 
all his slcill in detaching from the crown of France the 
most influential lords of the realm, especially the 



294 DEATH OF THE DUKE DE GUIENNE, 

Duke de Guienne. This prince had remained faith- 
ful to his brother so long as he thought that he was 
heir apparent to the throne ; but Louis having had a 
son by his second wife, Charlotte of Savoy, these 
hopes were dashed to the ground, and henceforth the 
little court of Bordeaux became the rendezvous oi all 
the disaffected ; the pl^n of a new league was even 
freely discussed. Louis XL heard of it, and felt that 
the kingdom was in the most critical position. The 
question of dismembering the monarchy and re- 
establishing the feudal system still pre- occupied 
Charles the Bold. " I am so eager for the good of 
the kingdom of France," said he, " that instead of one 
king there, I should like to see half-a-dozen." 
" English, Bretons, Bourguignons," exclaimed others 
in his presence," are going to hunt the king, and if 
he should undertake anything against the Duke de 
Guienne, we shall set such a pack of hounds after 
him that he won't know which way to escape." 

It is not surprising that Louis XL should have been 
accused of getting rid oi his brother by poison, so 
timely did the death of that prince occur for the 
king's purposes (May 24, 1472), but there is nothing 
whatever to prove the crime, and the reputation of a 
somewhat unscrupulous politician is, in this particular 
case, blameless. Of course, Charles the Bold did not 
scruple to charge the king with the crime of fratricide, 
and he sent throughout his own domains, and to 
several French towns, a manifesto, in which he 
affirmed that the Duke de Guienne's death had been 
' procured by poison, . malefices, witchcraft, and 
diabolical inventions." Very {(^\n people credited 



JEANNE HACHETTE. 295 

this, and Charles the Bold made of it a pretext to 
invade Picardy, where he committed all sorts of 
excesses. He then marched into Normandy, where he 
reckoned upon meeting the Duke of Brittany ; but he 
was stopped under the walls of Beauvais by a most 
unlooked-for resistance on the part of the inhabitants. 
Even the women took an important share in defend- 
ing the town ; they had as their leader a young girl, 
Jeanne Fouquet by name, and who subsequently 
was called Jeanne Hachette, by allusion to the weapon 
with which she defended herself After a siege of 
twenty-four days, Charles the Bold gave up the 
attempt, and continued his march towards Normandy. 

Louis XI. was watching closely all the movements 
of his enemy ; he wrote to Dammartin the following 
letter : " Keep well the city of Compiegne, it is a good 
place ; dismantle those which cannot be held, in order 
that the men-at-arms may not lose their time before 
them. If it please God and our Lady, we shall soon 
recover all. Monsieur le Grand Maitre, I request you 
to bethink yourself of the means of striking a good 
blow on the Duke of Burgundy, if you can advanta- 
geously do so. I hope, on my side, to do such dili- 
gence, that you will see that if I have stayed a long 
time here, I have not been idle ; I believe that, please 
God, I shall soon have done, and I mean to go and 
help you yonder." 

In spite of his wish to hold his ground in Normandy, 
Charles the Bold was soon obliged to return to Artois 
and Picardy, where the constable had it all his own 
way. Louis XI. took this opportunity of proposing a 
general truce, and negotiations were begun ; they were 



296 DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY. 

protracted, however, for nearly a year, and it was only 
at the end of 1473 that the rivals came to an under- 
standing. 

The Duke of Burgundy, thus free on the French 
side, attempted new conquests in the direction of 
Switzerland. This fresh enterprise was not attended 
with success ; defeated at Granson (March 3, 1476), 
and at Morat (June 22nd), he was killed in a battle 
under the walls of Nancy (January 5, 1477). Ths 
following quotation from Commines is interesting : 

" By this every one may see into what a deplorable 
condition this poor duke had brought himself by his 
contempt of good counsel. Both armies being joined, 
the Duke of Burgundy's forces having been twice 
beaten before, and, by consequence, weak and di- 
spirited, and ill provided besides, were quickly broken 
and entirely defeated : many saved themselves and 
got off; the rest were either taken or killed, and, among 
them, the Duke of Burgundy himself was killed on the 
spot. One Monsieur Claude, of Baurmont, captain of 
the castle of Dier, in Lorraine, killed the Duke of 
Burgundy. Finding his army routed, he mounted a 
swift horse, and, endeavouring to swim a little river in 
order to make his escape, his horse fell with him and 
overset him : the duke cried out for quarter to this 
gentleman who was pursuing him ; but he, being deaf, 
and not hearing him, immediately killed and stripped 
him, not knowing who he was, and left him naked in 
the ditch, where his body was found the next day after 
the battle ; which the Duke of Lorraine (to his eternal 
honour) buried with great pomp and magnificence in 
St. George's Church, in the old town of Nancy, him- 




^•TwpRuwn 



GATE OF THE PALACE, NANCY. 



298 THE BARONIAL HOUSES GIVE WAY. 

self and all his nobility, in great mourning, attending 
the corpse to the grave. The following epitaph was 
sometime afterwards engraved on his tomb : 

' Carolus hoc busto, Burgundae gloria gentis 
Conditur, Europae qui fuit ante timor.'" 

The death of Charles the Bold seemed the breaking 
up of the feudal system : all the baronial houses gave 
way in succession, and ruin struck down the proud 
lords who had for so many years threatened the crown 
of France. The Duke d'Alengon was amongst the 
first. Condemned to death by Charles VII. for having 
treated with the English, he had obtained that the 
fatal sentence should be commuted for one of im- 
prisonment for life. Released by Louis XL, he had then 
joined in all the conspiracies against that monarch, and 
rendered himself guilty of heinous crimes ; the king 
ordered his arrest and his trial (147 3- 1474) ; he was 
detained in prison till his death. 

John v.. Count d'Armagnac, deserved capital 
punishment far more than the Duke d'Alencon ; he 
was murdered in 1473. The Duke de Nemours, another 
rebel, was beheaded in 1477. The Count de Saint Pol, 
who had aimed at creating for himself an independent 
sovereignty, and had deceived in turns the French, the 
English, and the Bourguignons, endeavoured to deceive 
Louis XL ; this certainly was a bold attempt ; he paid 
for it with his head on the Place de Greve, in Paris 
(1475). The king's policy was to establish the pre- 
eminence of the Crown at the expense of the aris- 
tocracy, and by dint of patience he completely 
succeeded. He threatened with a lawsuit the old 



BREAKING UP OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM, 299 

Duke de Bourbon, and admitted into his own family 
Pierre de Beaujeu, brother and heir of that lord, by 
bestowing upon him the hand of his daughter Anne. 
The house of Orleans was rendered dependent of the 




CATHEDRAL OF REIMS. 



Crown by the marriage of Duke Louis with Joan, the 
king's second daughter. The house of Anjou sank 
into the same state of submission, Louis XL havmg 



300 BATTLE OF GUINEGATE, 

wrested from the old King Rene and from his nephew 
Charles a deed which recognized him, Louis, as heir 
of the countships of Maine, Anjou, and Provence. 
Brittany was kept in check, and magnificent offers 
were made to the most powerful and influential Breton 
noblemen. Thus Pierre de Rohan received the staff 
of Marshal of France, Gui de Laval was appointed to 
the important post of governor of Melun, and Pierre 
de Laval obtained the archbishopric of Reims. 

Another question sprang from the death of Charles 
the Bold. As he had left only a daughter, Mary, what 
was to become of all the duke's vast domains ? Suitors 
presented themselves from different sides, and Louis XL 
vainly tried on behalf of his son, who was then only 
eight years old ; the accepted candidate was Maximilian 
of Austria, and Olivier le Diable, who had been sent 
by the King of France, under the title of Count de 
Meulan, to enter an opposition, returned home dis- 
comfited. The marriage, settled on the 27th of May, 
1477, niay be considered as the origin of the desperate 
struggle between France and Austria. 

By one of those nice distinctions with which he was 
so familiar, Louis XL invaded Hainault, and took pos- 
session of Bouchain, Cambrai, Le Quesnoy, Avesnes, 
Therouanne. Maximilian has assembled an army ; he 
met the French at Guinegate, a village near Therou- 
anne, and defeated them completely. This success, 
however, was not of much avail to him, for he had, 
with insufficient resources, to face the rebellion of the 
people of Ghent and of Guelders. Under these condi- 
tions a treaty with France could not be a difficulty ; it 
was signed at Arras (December 23, 1482) ; Louis XL 



DEATH OF LOUIS XL 3OI 

obtained the most favourable conditions, amongst 
others the hand of Margaret, daughter of Maximilian, 
for the Dauphin Charles. 

The wily king was not really old, but the anxieties 
through which he had to pass so frequently, his sus- 
picious character, his struggles with the feudal lords, 
had impaired his health ; he never entirely recovered 
from an apoplectic stroke which he had in 148 1 ; the 
idea of death continually beset him, and inspired him 
with the most superstitious terrors. He had obtained 
from the King of Naples for a holy man, Frangois de 
Paule, permission to visit him at Plcssis-lez-Tours, and 
he used frequently to kneel before him, entreating him 
to prolong his life. Sultan Bajazet sent him some 
relics which had been found at Constantinople ; he 
had caused the holy ampulla to be brought from Reims 
with the view of having his whole body anointed with 
the consecrated oil. 

All was useless, and his physician, Jacques Coitier, 
made up his mind to inform him of what he most 
dreaded — the approach of death. " Sire," said he to 
him one day, " 1 must discharge a sad duty ; have no 
longer any hope either in the holy man of Calabria 
(Francois de Paule) or in any other remedy. It is cer- 
tainly all over with you ; so, think of your conscience, 
for no remedy is available." The strength of the 
royal patient sank rapidly, and he breathed his last 
on the 30th of August, 1483, between seven and eight 
in the evening, repeating his habitual invocation : 
"Our Lady of Embrun, my good mistress, have mercy 
on me ! " 

If we weigh equitably the actions of Louis XL, we 



302 NON-POLITICAL REFORMS. 

cannot help acknowledging that he was a great king, 
and that he did much good to France. His task was 
to destroy a society which had served its time, and 
was now only a hindrance to peace, order, and sound 
government ; unfortunately the means he employed 
were so often contrary to morality and characterized 
by meanness, that sympathy was on the side of the 
vanquished. The rigorous measures commanded by 
the best interests of the country seemed inspired by 
personal revenge, and he allowed too much for 
treachery and underhand intrigue. 

We must not forget to mention a few important 
reforms which Louis XL introduced, and which are 
not immediately connected with politics. The prin- 
cipal, perhaps, is the organization of the postal service. 
By a decree bearing date June 19, 1464, the king 
established on all the high roads, at intervals of four 
leagues, stations where horses of small size, properly 
harnessed and fitted out, were kept in constant readi- 
ness for the service of the king. The superintendents 
or directors of these stations were known as niattres 
tenant les chevaux coitrants pour le service du Roi. 
They were placed under the orders of a conseiller 
grand maitre des coureurs de France. They were 
directed to conduct in person, without delay, all mes- 
sengers and other persons sent by the king and pro- 
vided with regular passports. 

Louis XL created parliaments kt Grenoble, Bor- 
deaux, and Dijon ; he multiplied the appeals made to 
the king's court against the sentences pronounced by 
feudal tribunals ; he retained provincial assemblies 
where they existed already, and created them where 



PROGRESS OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XI. 303 

they had not previously been formed ; he sanctioned 
the free election of magistrates, and granted to the 
bourgeoisie privileges which enabled them to hold their 
own against the barons. Thus, the command of the 
watch in the various towns belonged formerly to the 
aristocracy ; it might now be bought by the citizens or 
their representatives. 

Commerce, industry, manufactures largely benefited 
by the encouragement they received from Louis XI. ; 
he had also conceived the idea of estabHshing through- 
out the kingdom uniformity of legislation, weights and 
measures ; and, although he was not destined to carry 
out this wise and useful measure, yet the mere thought 
of doing so proves his sagacity. 

In conclusion, the reign of Louis XL was for France 
an epoch of decided progress, and the political struc- 
ture of the Middle Ages was now gone for ever. 



XV. 



CHARLES VIII. (1483-T498)— LOUIS XIL (1498-151O. 



When on his death-bed, Louis XI. sent for the lord 
of Beaujeu, his son-in-law, and said to him, " Go to 
Amboise and take care of the Dauphin ; I have 
entrusted both him and the government of the king- 
dom to the guardianship of yourself and of my 
daughter, your wife. You know what recommenda- 
tions I have made to him ; see that these recom- 
mendations are strictly observed ; bid him grant 
favour and trust to those who have served me well. 
You likewise know who are those against whom he 
should be on his guard, and whom you must not 
allow to approach him." 

Charles VIII. was scarcely thirteen years old, and 
as the decree issued by Charles V. had fixed fourteen 
as the majority for the kings of France, the adminis- 
tration was left in the hands of the eldest daughter 
of Louis XL, Anne de Beaujeu, aged only twenty- 
three. The Chronicler Brantome describes her as 
"the cleverest and ablest lady that ever was, and in 
every respect the true image and likeness of the king, 
Louis XL, her father." He himself was thoroughly 



'^ LA GRANDE DAME." 305 

acquainted with the character of her whom he had 
appointed to carry on his political system ; he used 
to say of her : " She is the least foolish woman in the 
world ; for there is no such person as a wise one." 

Anne de Beaujeu knew full well that a reaction 
was being organized against the old order of things, 
and following in her father's steps, instead of offering 
an open resistance, she applied herself to disarm the 
malcontents by favours and promises. The Duke de 
Bourbon, her brother-in-law, was named Constable of 
France, and Lieutenant-general of the kingdom. 
Louis, Duke d'Orleans, received the governorship of 
He de France and of Champagne. Dunois was 
appointed ruler over Dauphine. Three subaltern 
officers were sacrificed to public hatred ; Olivier le 
Daim and Doyac were sent to the gallows, and the 
physician Jacques Coitier saved his head by paying 
back fifty thousand crowns which he had received 
from Louis XL 

Difficulties soon arose, however, springing, in the 
first place, out of the summoning of the States- 
General, and, in the second, out of the rivalry between 
Anne de Beaujeu and the Duke d'Orleans. This 
nobleman hoped that by convening the States he 
might find an opportunity of rising again into power, 
and the princess-regent was reluctantly obliged to 
sanction the assembly. The States met at Tours on 
the 15th of January, 1484, in the hall of the 
archiepiscopal palace. Never had France been so 
thoroughly represented ; nearly three hundred 
deputies took part in the proceedings ; the three 
orders of the State had sent their delegates to the 



306 THE DUKE D' ORLEANS. 

chief place of each bailliage, and even the peasants 
had recorded their votes. 

After promising in the name of the regent reforms 
of the most satisfactory nature in every branch of 
the pubhc service, the Chancellor of France, Guillaume 
de Rochefort, started the question about the composi- 
tion of the council of State. It was stated that it 
should consist (i) of the princes of the blood royal, 
(2) of twelve members selected from the deputies to 
the States-General. The presidency was given to the 
Duke d'Orleans. This last measure was, perhaps, 
unavoidable, but created bickerings and jealousies 
which ended by a civil war. 

The chatty chronicler Brantome is worth quoting 
here : '' I have heard say," he writes, " that from the 
beginning Madame de Beaujeu entertained for the 
Duke d'Orleans sentiments of affection, nay, of love ; 
so that if M. d'Orleans had only thought fit to under- 
stand how matters went, he might have had a large 
share in the government of the kingdom, and I know 
this from good authority ; but he could not restrain 
himself, because he saw that she was too ambitious, 
and he wanted her to yield to him, as being the first 
prince of the royal family, and not him to her. Now 
she desired exactly the opposite, being bent upon 
holding the highest place and governing all. So 
there existed between the two strivings created by 
jealousy, love, and ambition." 

Light, fickle, imprudent, but brave withal, the 
Duke d'Orleans had to oppose a princess remarkable 
for her sagacity, her discretion, and her cleverness ; 
he was doomed to fail. He then issued a protest 



REBELLION AGAINST ANNE DE BEAUJEU. 307 

addressed to the Parliament, the University, and the 
principal cities {bonnes villes) of the realm, com- 
plaining of Madame de Beaujeu's interference with 
all the details of government, and pledging himself 
to restore to the young king full freedom of action. 
This appeal not producing the desired effect, the 
Duke d'Orleans had recourse to conspiracy and 
rebellion. He was joined by the Duke de Bourbon, 
the Counts de Dunois and D'Angouleme, and 
especially the Duke of Brittany, that last representa- 
tive of the great feudal houses, and the determined 
adversary of Louis XL 

On her side the princess-regent had not been 
inactive. She signed a treaty of alliance with the 
Duke of Lorraine (September 2g, 1484), the lord of 
Rieux, and three other powerful vassals of the Duke 
of Brittany (October 22nd), and the three great cities 
of Flanders, namely, Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres 
(October 25th). She then sent a body of men-at-arms 
to arrest the Duke d'Orleans in Paris ; but warned in 
time, he fled to the domains of one of his supporters, 
the Duke d'Alen^on, and from thence openly called 
to arms all the barons of France. On the 13th of 
December, T486, he concluded a secret alliance with 
the Emperor Maximilian, the King of Navarre, the 
Dukes of Bourbon and of Brittany, the Counts of 
Narbonne, Nevers, Commines, Dunois, Angouleme, 
Albret, the Duke of Lorraine, &c. The pretext was — 
enforcing obedience to the resolutions passed by the 
States-General, and putting an en J to the ambition 
and coveteousness of the king's present advisers. On 
the advice of Commines and of Georges d'Amboise 



308 BATTLE OF SAINT AUBIN DU CORMIER. 

the confederates had entertained the bold thought 
of seizing upon the king himself; but Madame de 
Beaujeu — la grande dame^ as she was familiarly and 
justly designated — anticipated them. In the first 
place, she despatched a body of troops towards the 
south of France ; they went as far as Bordeaux, and 
reduced into submission the Count d'Angouleme, the 
Sire d'Albret, and other powerful supporters of the 
Duke d'Orleans. Anjou and Maine were invaded, 
whilst La Tremoille penetrated into Brittany and 
destroyed the castles of Ancenis and Chateaubriant 
The two armies met at Saint Aubin du Cormier 
(July 27, 1488), and the ultimate result was the 
complete routing of the rebels. The Duke d'Orleans 
fought with the utmost bravery, but he was taken 
prisoner, and shut up first at Lusignan, and next 
in the fortress of Bourges. 

Brittany was really the centre and focus of the 
insurrection. The duke, justly fearing the con- 
sequences of his ill-advised resistance, sent in his 
submission to the king, pledging himself no longer 
to abet the designs of his enemJes, abandoning 
certain cities as a guarantee of his sincerity, and 
promising not to give away any of his daughters in 
marriage except with the full consent of the King of 
France. Shortly after he died, and the Duchy of 
Brittany passed into the hands of the princess*Anne, 
a child twelve years old. It w^ill be easily imagined 
that a person thus circumstanced had plenty of 
suitors : the most to be dreaded was the Emperor 
Maximilian, very powerful already, and for whom 
the possession of the Duchy of Brittany would have 



CHARLES VIII. . 309 

been a source of influence highly prejudicial to 
France. It was asserted that he had gone so far 
as to form a matrimonial alliance with Anne by 
procuration, but this was no unsurmountable obstacle, 
and, at any rate, it must be set aside at any cost. 

If we may trust contemporary historians, Charles 
VIII. was not of a very prepossessing appearance ; 
small in stature and badly proportioned, he had 
a large head, a big nose, prominent lips always half- 
open ; his utterance was full of hesitation, and a 
nervous irritation disfigured him. Deficient both in 
body and mind, his skill was concentrated upon 
athletic exercises, in which he displayed great 
proficiency. Well read, besides, in the old romances, 
he longed for an opportunity of imitating the high 
deeds of Charlemagne and of the mediaeval paladins, 
and was constantly dreaming of expeditions to 
distant countries, possibly of a fresh Crusade. 

Such, in a few words, is the portrait of Charles 
VIII. Anne of Brittany does not seem to have 
been much more attractive ; but she had mental 
qualities which made up for her physical drawbacks. 
She was clever, shrewd, and her intellect had been so 
cultivated that she understood Latin, and even some- 
what of Greek. At any rate, the young King of 
France gained his point, and accomplished what the 
policy of Louis XI. most desired The marriage 
contract was secretly signed in the Chapel of our 
Lady at Rennes on the 19th of November, 1491, and 
on the 1 6th of December following, the union was 
publicly and solemnly celebrated at Langeais. Charles 
was then one and twenty, and the bride nearly fifteen 



3IO . SITUATION OF ITALY. 

years old. The new married couple made their official 
entry in Paris on the 6th of February amongst a 
large concourse of people gathered together from all 
sides to greet them. This was the last political act 
of Madame de Beaujeu. Her career as regent, so 
prosperously and wisely conducted, had come to an 
end. She retired into private life, and died in 1522. 

By uniting to the Crown the domains of the house 
of Anjou the kings of France had obtained preten- 
tions upon the kingdom of Naples ; but was it pru- 
dent to put forth these pretensions? Louis XI. did 
not think so, and had never availed himself of his 
undoubted rights. Madame de Beaujeu was of the 
same opinion, and in her wisdom she had seen that if 
the extension of France, and the strengthening of its 
frontiers were needed, it should be in the direction of 
Flanders in the north, not towards the Alps. Against 
this opinion, maintained unanimously by Count de 
Crevecoeur and the old advisers of the Crown, 
Charles VIII. opposed his own strong yearning after 
chivalrous adventures, backed by the enthusiasm of the 
younger members of the aristocracy, whose energy, 
cramped at home for more than thirty years, wanted 
to spend itself on foreign battlefields. 

The situation of Italy at that time was critical ; 
monarchy, theocracy, principalities, republics, every 
form of government was represented in the peninsula, 
and deep-seated corruption existed under the polish 
of art and literature. Alexander VI. in Rome, Fer- 
dinand at Naples, Pietro di Medici at Florence, Lo- 
dovico Sforza at Milan, were instances of what can be 
done in the sphere of politics when vice is the moving 



CHARLES VIII. INVADES ITALY, 311 

principle. Treachery had taken the place of courage, 
and men, who would have not dared to fight openly 
and to meet their enemies in a fair contest, had re- 
course to daggers and to poison. Instead of national 
armies were the condottieri, hired soldiers raised from 
the scum of Europe. Italian diplomacy, says a 
modern historian, was a school of crimes. 

The temptation to invade Italy was all the stronger 
for Charles VIII. because he was invited over by 
some of the Italians themselves, Lodovico Sforza, the 
Duke of Savoy, the Neapolitan nobles, Savonarola, 
and the cardinals, enemies of the Pope Alexander VI. 
However, before starting for this expedition certain 
preliminaries had to be gone through which implied 
considerable outlay of money, and negotiations with 
powerful and ambitious neighbours. An English 
army had landed at Calais, the Emperor Maximilian 
was invading Artois, Ferdinand the Catholic, King of 
Spain was preparing to cross the Pyrenees. Bent 
upon his expedition to Italy, Charles VI 1 1, had to 
purchase the neutrality of all these potentates. The 
English left France (treaty of Etaples, November 3 
1492), on the promise of 745,000 gold crowns 
(40,000,000 francs), payable in fifteen years ; Ferdi- 
nand the Catholic received back the provinces of 
Cerdagne and Rcmsillon (treaty of Narbonne, January 
19, 1493) ; the Emperor Maximilian recovered Ar- 
tois, Franche Comte, and Charolais (treaty of Senlis, 
May 23, 1493), which it . had cost so much to 
Louis XL to conquer. Having thus satisfied his 
ambitious neighbours, the King of France at last 
started in August, 1494, at the head of an army 



312 BATTLE OF FORNOVA. 

which Commines describes as most brilliant, but 
" little accustomed to discipline and obedience." It 
consisted of three thousand six hundred lances, six 
thousand Breton archers, an equal number of cross- 
bow men, eight hundred Gascons, eight thousand 
Swiss pikemen, and a good proportion of volunteers. 
The artillery struck the Italians with terror ; forty 
siege and field pieces, and about one thousand smaller 
ones, served by twelve thousand men, and drawn by 
eight thousand horses. They had never seen such an 
array, and they themselves knew absolutely nothing 
of the working and managing of artillery. 

The march of Charles VI 1 1, through the Italian 
peninsula was like a triumphal progress ; but his 
enemies had lost no time in the meanwhile, and 
when he believed himself firmly established in Naples, 
he received from Philippe de Commines the fatal 
news : (i) that of Lodovico Sforza's treachery ; (2) 
of an alliance against him made by the Pope, the 
Emperor, the King of Spain, the Venetians, and the 
Duke of Milan. There was nothing to do but to 
return to France ; leaving his cousin, Gilbert de Bour- 
bon, Count de Montpensier, with a force of between 
eight and ten thousand men, to defend the kingdom 
of Naples, Charles VIII. began his retreat, and met 
with no obstacle till he arrived in the duchy of 
Parma ; there he found the formidable army of the 
Italian league, thirty thousand men strong, at least, 
drawn up in battle array, near the village of Fornovo 
(July 5, 1495). The French fought their way through 
with complete success, although they were reduced to a 
force of ten thousand men, exhausted by a long march. 



314 DEATH OF CHARLES VIII. 

On his return to France, Charles VIII. soon heard 
that the Count de Montpensier had been driven out 
of Naples, and a short time after, D'Aubigny came 
back with the remains of the army of occupation ; 
Gilbert de Bourbon had died of the plague at Atella. 
The young king, forgetting the vicissitudes of his 
Italian campaign, now resolved upon accomplishing 
in the finances, the government of the State, and the 
administration of justice, reforms which were very 
much required, and the necessity of which he felt 
more than any one else. He was at Amboise, super- 
intending some improvements carried on in the castle 
by workmen whom he had brought with him from 
Italy, when passing under a dark gallery he struck 
his head against a door so violently that he died a 
few hours afterwards (April 7, 1498). " A prince," 
says Commines, " of indifferent ability, but so good 
that it was impossible to find a better creature." 
Louis XII., the new king, was the grand-nephew of 
Charles V., and he had been obliged against his will 
to marry Jeanne de France, daughter of Louis XI. 
His great ambition was to take as his wife, Anne, 
the rich heiress of the Duke of Brittany, and with 
this view he petitioned the Pope for a divorce, on the 
ground that his marriage with the Princess Jeanne 
had been forced upon him. " Right," to quote the 
words of a modern historian, " had to yield to reasons 
of State, and as Alexander VI., the reigning Pontiff, 
desired to advance the fortunes of Csesar, his favourite 
son, he readily granted the required divorce. Caesar, 
who brought the bull into France, was rewarded by 
being made Duke of Valentinois, with a large pension, 



CHARACTER OF LOUIS XII. 315 

a bride of the house of Albret, and ready promises of 
support in his Italian schemes, where he aimed at 
founding an independent principality for himself in 
the Romagna. All obstacles, including the poor 
Queen Jeanne, being thus easily removed, a splendid 
marriage followed. It was a piece of scandalous and 
cruel trafficking, but it was useful for France. Anne 
of Brittany, according to the terms of the contract 
with Charles VI I L, in which it was written that, if 
the king died, she should marry his heir, now once 
more became Queen of France by marrying Louis 

XII. (1499)-"' 

The King of France had scarcely ascended the 
throne when he prepared to vindicate the rights on 
the kingdom of Naples, which his predecessors had 
transmitted to him, besides his own personal claims 
on the duchy of Milan, which he held from his grand- 
mother, Valentine Visconti. The ruler of that pro- 
vince was still Lodovico Sforza, surnamed '' II Moro," 
from the fact that his cognizance was a mulberry 
tree ; he had been the first to betray the Italian 
cause, and it was scarcely to be wondered at that he 
should remain isolated in the midst of his native 
country. Louis XI I. sacrificed to the reigning pas- 
sion for foreign conquests, but did not behave with 
the imprudence which had characterized Charles VIII. 
Without possessing superior qualities, he was cautious, 
considerate, and extremely kind. He began his reign 
by diminishing the taxes, and refusing the don de 
joyeux avenement, amounting to 300,000 livres, to 
which every man holding an office or privilege from 

^ Kitchin, " History of France," ii. 130. 



3l6 LO DO VI CO IL MORO. 

the Crown had to contribute at the beginning of a 
new reign, if he would secure his continued enjoy- 
ment of that privilege or office. He entertained no 
grudge against La Tremoille and the other faithful 
servants of la grande dame, who had beaten him at 
Saint Aubin du Cormiet; but, on the contrary, said to 
them, that the King of France had no business to 
avenge wrongs done to the Duke d'Orleans. 

The conquest of Milanese was speedily accom- 
plished. Trivulzio, an Italian general who had joined 
the service of Louis XIL, no sooner presented him- 
self with an army of nine thousand cavalry and thir- 
teen thousand foot soldiers, than " II Moro " fled, and 
reached the Tyrol. Nothing but the maladministration 
of Trivulzio gave him new chances ; he had been 
expelled in October, 1499; on February 5, 1500, he 
returned at the head of a motley band of Germans 
and Swiss, and surprised Milan. A fresh army, 
raised by Louis XIL, came down the Alps, and met 
the forces of Lodovico at Novara ; the mercenaries of 
the Duke of Milan refused to fight, and a soldier of 
the canton of Uri gave him up to the French. He 
was sent to France, and retained prisoner in the 
castle of Loches, where he died, after a captivity 
which lasted some years. The Venetian ambassador, 
Trevisano, who saw him soon after, wrote that, " He 
plays at tennis and at cards, and he is fatter than he 
ever was." 

Leaving Lombardy, the French army started for 
Naples (May 26, 1501); it numbered five thousand 
four hundred cavalry, seven thousand infantry, and 
thirty-six cannons. Thanks to the co-operation of 



BATTLE OF GARIGLIANO. 317 

the Pope, Alexander VI., and of the King of Spain, 
Ferdinand the Cathohc, the beginning of the cam- 
paign was attended with considerable success ; but 
the treachery of Ferdinand altered the position of 
affairs, and ruined for a time the French cause in 
Italy. " It is the second time," said Louis, " that the 
king of Spain has deceived me." " That's a lie," 
impudently answered Ferdinand ; "it is the tenth." 

Louis made the greatest preparations to avenge 
himself upon Ferdinand, and to prevent the evil con- 
sequences which might arise from his defection. 
Three armies were sent in succession ; they all failed. 
Gonzalvo of Cordova, who led the Spanish forces, 
stopped the French on the banks of the Garigliano ; 
La Tremoille was prevented by illness from com- 
manding, and his lieutenants were, first, the Marquis 
of ]\Iaiitua, and next, the Marquis of Saluzzo. The 
rout of the French was complete ; artillery, baggage, 
and a great number of prisoners fell into the hands of 
the enemies. Bayard's heroism in defending the 
bridge of Garigliano was the only redeeming act on 
the part of the soldiers of Louis XII. The com- 
mander of Venosa, too, Louis d'Ars by name, refused 
to capitulate, and fought bravely his way back to 
France with the remains of the garrison. 

Under favour of all these wars the Venetians had 
contrived to gain possession of Brescia, Cremona, and 
Bergamo. Louis XII. resolved to get these towns back 
again, and he succeeded in forming against the power- 
ful republic, a league which was joined by the Pope, 
the Emperor ^Maximilian, and even Ferdinand the 
Catholic (^League of Cambrai, 1508). The two armies 



u 







LEAGUE AGAINST FRANCE. 319 

met at Agnadello in the province of Lodi (May 14, 
1509) ; the French were commanded by Louis XII. 
in person, and by his two lieutenants Trivulzio and 
La Tremoille. At the head of the Venetians were 
Perigliano and Alviano. The king fought bravely, 
and exposed himself without hesitation to the attack 
of the enemy. " Let every one who is afraid," 
exclaimed he, " place himself behind me ; a king of 
France is not killed by cannon-shot." He did not 
lose many soldiers ; on the side of the Venetians it 
was estimated that between eight and ten thousand 
men perished. The results of this battle were con- 
siderable ; in a few days most of the towns of Upper 
Italy opened their gates, and Louis XL recrossed the 
Alps, firmly believing that his conquest was secure. 

After the league of Cambrai another league sprang 
up in direct opposition to it, and which was destined 
to put an end to the domination of the French in Italy. 
The papacy was held at that time by Julius IL, a 
man of the most warlike disposition, who, far from 
shrinking from the employment of force, appeared on 
the field of battle clothed in a cuirass, and armed as 
a knight. His aim was to turn the Barbarians out of 
Italy, and with that view he formed a holy league 
(October 5, 151 1) which was joined by Maximilian, 
Henry VIII. King of England, Ferdinand the 
Catholic, the S\viss and the Republic of Venice. The 
Spanish general Ramon de Cardona brought to the 
assistance of the pontifical troops twelve thousand 
men ; ten thousand Swiss commanded by the Car- 
dinal of Sion, Matthew Schinner, descended from the 
Alps, and Louis XIL saw the frontiers of his kingdom 



320 BATTLE OF RAVENNA. 

threatened on all sides. In this crisis his nephew, 
Gaston de Foix, Duke de Nemours, a young general 
only twenty-two years of age, took the command of 
the French forces in Italy, and for a short time main- 
tained in the peninsula the prestige oi \h.^ fleiir-de-lys. 
A furious battle took place under the walls of Ravenna 
on the nth of April, 1512. ''Since God created 
heaven and earth," says a chronicler, " never was 
seen a more cruel and harder fight than the one 
which French and Spaniards engaged against each 
other; they rested for a moment just to recover 
breath, and then would begin again, shouting France I 
and Spain ! at the top of their voice. The Spaniards, 
at last, were completely routed and obliged to abandon 
their camp, where, between two ditches, three or four 
hundred men-at-arms were killed." The battle was 
won when Gaston de Foix, carried away by his ar- 
dour, rushed in pursuit of a troop of Spaniards in 
full retreat; he had only twenty or thirty men about 
him ; he was immediately surrounded, and after 
defending himself, "as Roland did at Roncevaux," 
he fell pierced with spear thrusts. 

This fatal catastrophe rendered ineffectual the 
victory of Ravenna. France was threatened, and in 
spite of a few successes both on land and on sea, Louis 
XII. was reduced to negotiate. The Swiss were 
pacified with 400,000 gold crowns. Maximilian had 
penetrated by the northern frontier together with the 
English ; he met near Guinegate the French com- 
manded by the Duke de Longueville, and who were 
unaccountably panic-stricken. Bayard, Longueville, 
and other captains were taken prisoners, and the 



322 DEATH OF LOUIS XII. 

derisive name of "Battle of the Spurs" commemorated 
an engagement where no fighting had really taken 
place. Maximilian made his peace with France 
(March, 15 14), and Louis XII. pledged himself to the 
Pope (Leo X.), never to put forth again any claim to 
the duchy of Milan. The English fleet, though far 
superior in number to the French, had been defeated 
by Herve Primoguet off the British coast, and yet it 
became necessary for the King of France to come to 
terms with Henry VIII. also. A separate treaty was 
concluded in London, which secured to Henry the 
possession of Tournay and a yearly pension of 
100,000 crowns for the space of ten years. Louis 
XII., whom the death of Anne of Brittany had left 
a widower, married the Princess Mary of England, 
scarcely sixteen years old. " For many reasons," 
says Le Loyal Serviteiir, " the King of France did not 
need to be married again, nor did he feel much 
inclined to do so ; but seeing himself at war on all 
sides, and knowing that he could not carry on these 
wars without greatly over-taxing his people, he re- 
sembled the pelican. After Queen Mary had made 
her entry into Paris, entry which was very triumphant, 
and followed by sundry jousts and tournaments which 
lasted more than six weeks, the king, for his wife's 
sake, altered all his way of living. Whereas he used 
to dine at eight o'clock, he now must needs dine at 
noon ; whereas he was wont to go to bed at six, he 
now sat up till midnight." This new regime told 
upon the constitution of a prince who, since his great 
illness in 1 504, had never quite recovered. He died 
on the 1st of January, 15 15, sincerely regretted by 
the nation. 



ADMINISTRATION. 323 

The administration of Louis XII., by its wise 
character and its excellent results, stands in strong 
and pleasing contrast with his foreign policy. He 
made up his mind to live and maintain his household 
within the limits of the income derived from his own 
domains, and by so doing he was enabled to reduce 
the taxes by nearly one-third. Gratuities, pensions, 
ruinous festivals were suppressed, and the strictest 
economy was established consistent with due regard 
to the exigencies of the public service. " My 
courtiers," he remarked one day, " may laugh at my 
avarice ; I had far rather they should do so than that 
the people should weep for my extravagance." A tax 
had been raised to supply the cost for an expedition 
against Genoa ; this war having been finished more 
quickly and more cheaply than was anticipated, 
Louis XII. remitted the surplus of the subsidy, re- 
marking : " That money will bear more fruit in their 
hands than in mine." The soldiers and adventurers 
dare not plunder, and the peasants were protected 
against the unruliness of marauders and highwaymen. 
No mercy was shown to those who sought to put 
under contribution villages and homesteads ; those 
who were caught paid the penalty of their misdeeds 
by being sent to the gallows. Every encouragement 
was given to commerce, agriculture, and industry ; 
and we have the evidence of contemporary writers to 
show that " in twelve years' time the third part of the 
kingdom was cultivated, and that for every large mer- 
chant or trader who could formerly be found in Paris, 
Lyons, or Rouen, there were fifty during the reign of 
Louis XIL People thought much less then of 



324 " THE FATHER OF THE PEOPLE.'' 

travelling to London, Rome, or Naples, than they did 
in days past of going to Lyons or to Geneva." In- 
comes of every kind rose to a wonderful amount, 
and the collecting of the taxes and other sources of 
the national revenues was accomplished much more 
cheaply and easily than it had ever been before. 
The States-General were convened once only during 
the reign, namely, in 1506, and the deputies of the 
bourgeoisie alone met for deliberation. One of their 
acts was to bestow upon the king, through the 
medium of their delegate, the glorious title of Father 
of the People. 

With the reign of Louis XII. must always be 
associated the active, intelligent, and beneficent ad- 
ministration of Georges, Cardinal d'Amboise, who, for 
the space of twenty-seven years was less the king's 
confidential minister than his friend. Belonging to a 
powerful family, born in 1460, D'Amboise obtained 
the see of Montauban at the early age of fourteen ; 
he attached himself to the fortunes of the Duke 
d'Orleans, remained his faithful adviser so long as 
Charles VIII. was on the throne, and received after- 
wards the promotion which he had so richly deserved 
by his attachment and his devotedness. Appointed 
successively to the archbishopric of Narbonne and 
(1493) to that of Rouen, he was virtually the governor 
of the province of Normandy, and inaugurated there 
the reforms which, after the death of Charles VIII., 
he carried out in the whole kingdom.. He really 
loved the people, and in return he shared the re- 
spectful affection which the people entertained for 
their sovereign. He played under Louis XI I. the 



GEORGES CARDINAL D AMBOISE. 325 

part which Suger did under Louis VII., and Sully, 
Richelieu, and Colbert enjoyed subsequently under 
Henry IV., Louis XIIL, and Louis XIV. There 
is no doubt that critics might find, and have justly 
found, many serious faults in Georges d'Amboise's 
administration ; but, on the whole, it deserves to be 
remembered in history as excellent, and it became a 
proverbial expression to say : " Let Georges do what 
he pleases {^Laissez faire a Georges)!^ Nor must we 
forget that he was an intelligent patron of the fine 
arts ; under his direction Roger Ango began the 
palais de justice of Rouen, and he built the chateau 
of Gaillon, which is a splendid monument of 
Renaissance architecture. 

The creation of two new parliaments (Provence, 
1 501 ; Normandy, 1499), the reforms introduced into 
the administration of justice, the extension of the 
postal service, the compiling of the laws into one 
statute book pursued and carried on, and various 
other wise measures concurred to make of Louis XII. 
one of the most beloved and popular of French kings, 
and it is no mere formal phrase which Le Loyal 
Serviteur used when he said that he was bttried at 
Saint Denis in the midst of the " deep cries and 
wailings and the profound regard of all his subjects," 



XVI. 

INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 
— LITERATURE, THE DRAMA, TRADE, INDUSTRY 
— CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

The intellectual life of the fifteenth century in 
France could not but be very poor in the midst of the 
terrible calamities which visited the country ; the 
Esprit Gaulois which runs so brilliantly and so amus- 
ingly through the old fabliaux, and the " Roman de 
Renart " seems to have quite disappeared, and the suc- 
cessors of the Troll veres remain silent. We have 
already named Eustache Deschamps and Olivier 
Bassilen amongst the French poets of the fifteenth 
century ; we have given a word of praise to the 
vigorous and patriotic compositions of Alain Chartier 
and Christine de Pisan ; when we have added to our 
list Froissart, Charles d'Orleans, and Villon, we shall 
have exhausted the cycle of poets. Froissart is best 
known as the mediaeval chronicler par exxeUence, but 
he began his literary career by writing sickly and 
sentimental ballads after the style of the " Roman de 
la Rose ; " the " Joli buisson de Jonece" is one of his 
best pieces. It is sad to have to acknowledge that 
in all these pieces, and Froissart's poetical works are 



POETRY — KUTEBEUFy VILLON, 327 

numerous, the reader seeks in vain for the accents of 
patriotism, for an expression of honest indignation at 
the sight of the misfortunes from which France is 
suffering. Poetry has become merely a jeu d'esprit, 
an agreeable pastime, so much so, in fact, that even 
Charles d'Orleans, whose father had been murdered, 
who had lost a tenderly beloved wife, and who was 
himself a captive in England, seldom rises to the 
utterance of true feeling in his otherwise graceful and 
harmonious poetry. As Charles d'Orleans was the 
last songster of mediaeval chivalry, so Frangois Villon 
appears as the last representative of the popular muse. 
Before him, Rutebeuf had given the example of a deep 
and natural vein of poetry; he walked in his footsteps 
but surpassed him both by the scandals of his life and 
the excellence of his compositions. Necessity, he 
says, had driven him to commit actions of which he 
felt thoroughly ashamed. 

" Necessite fait gens mesprendre. 
Et faim saillir le loup dcs bois." 

The excuse is a common one, and we remember how, 
two centuries later, in Moliere's " Fourberies de Scea- 
pin," Argante asks the impudent servant whether it is 
any justification for a man who has committed every 
possible crime to say that Jie has been urged on by 
necessity. At any rate, if Villon escaped the gallows, 
it was thanks to the personal interference of Louis 
XL, and he lived long enough to write that charming 
" Ballade des Dames du temps jadis," the well-known 
refrain of which 

" Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? " {ante annum) 



328 HISTORIANS. — MONSTRELET, 

would have done honour to the most accomplished 
poet. 

If we now turn to chroniclers, historians, and an- 
nalists, we find ourselves face to face, on the contrary, 
with a group of writers all more or less remarkable ; 
and indeed the invasion of France by the English? 
the Civil Wars, the downfall of the house of Bur- 
gundy, are events which appealed in the most powerful 
manner to the talent of all those who had powers of 
observation and who could wield a pen. Enguerrand 
deMonstrelet, the continuator of Froissart,is extremely 
dull, we grant ; but who would not appear dull when 
compared with the brilliant curate of Lestines ? On 
the other hand, Monstrelet, we unhesitatingly say, is 
exact, accurate ; he takes pains to procure the best 
information, and a modern critic who dismisses him 
with the contemptuous epithet of 7'egistrar (greffier)) 
forgets that a registrar commits to paper what he 
actually sees, which after all is the principal, the 
indispensable quality of an historian. Froissart's 
chronicles take us from the year 1326 to the close of 
the fourteenth century ; Monstrelet's narrative, divided 
into two books, describes the events which happened 
between 1400 and 1444. 

After having named the two authors to whom 
we have just alluded, most critics go at once to 
Philip de Commines, and leave George Chastel- 
lain and Thomas Basin unnoticed ; and yet Chas- 
tellain is in every way superior to Monstrelet ; a 
thorough Boiirgiiignon by his political sympathies, 
he aimed at combining with artistic colouring a due 
attention to details, and the faithful description of the 



CHASTELLAIN— BASIN, 329 

events which were going on under his eyes. His 
principal work is the life of Philip the Good, un- 
fortunately incomplete. If Monstrelet is tedious by 
his dulness, Chastellain is wearisome from aiming at 
grandiloquence. He had begun his literary career as 
a poet, and the following lines are a fair specimen of 
the bombast in which he was particularly fond of 
indulging : 

" Muse, en musant en ta douce musette, 
Donne louange — et gloire celestine 
Au dieu Phebus, a la barbe roussette." 

Chastellain's chronicle is written in the same style ; 
monotonous in poetry, it becomes intolerable in prose. 
Thomas Basin's experiences as an historian are 
rather singular ; he was a great friend of Charles VH. 
and, on the contrary, he managed to draw down upon 
himself the hatred of Louis XL, who, on three diffe- 
rent occasions, found him thwarting his political com- 
binations. This was a crime which the astute king 
could not forgive, and the unfortunate Basin, Bishop 
of Lisieux, was driven from his see, persecuted in 
the most odious manner, and obliged to leave his 
native country. By way of revenge he composed in 
Latin the biographies of Charles VH. and Louis XL, 
praising the former beyond what he deserved, and 
painting the latter under the most repulsive colours. 
These works, published as the production of a certain 
Amelgard, are worth reading, because, notwithstand- 
ing the author's gross partiality, they contain a num- 
ber of interesting and authentic details. It is only 
quite recently that the name of Amelgard has been 
discovered to be a mere fiction, and that Bishop 



330 COM MINES. 

Basin has had his claims as a biographer duly- 
restored. 

We now come to the historian of the fifteenth 

century, the first really philosophic historian France 

can boast of, Philip de Commines, Sire d Argenton, 



PHILIP DE COMMINES. 



the devoted friend and passionate admirer of Louis 
XL Originally a servant of Charles the Bold, his 
methodical, astute, and scheming nature was incom- 
patible with the capricious, rash, headstrong character 



LOUIS XL AND COMMINES. 33 1 

of the Duke of Burgundy, whereas it suited that of the 
French monarch. Philip de Commines and Louis 
XI. complete each other, and are the perfect embodi- 
ment of the fifteenth century. The particular line of 
political conduct which has since been called Machia- 
vellian was then prevalent at the court of all the 
European princes, and the Sire d'Argenton belonged 
essentially to the school of Machiavel. He therefore 
is very indulgent for the crimes of his master, and has 
an excuse for all his tricks, provided they are cleverly 
carried out ; nay, they seem to him more deserving of 
praise than of blame. His ideas of right and wrong 
were those of his contemporaries ; but he remains 
unequalled as an interpreter of events, and a judge of 
character ; no one has combined to a greater extent 
common sense and cleverness. If we look upon 
Commines as a mere writer, we find in his chronicles 
all the marks which characterize an epoch of transi- 
tion. The genius of the Middle Ages and that of the 
Renaissance are blended together. A modern critic 
has observed that he did not know the classical 
languages, and the few Latin forms which are to be 
met with in his style come not from the study of 
books, but from the colloquial habits of those amongst 
whom he lived. He thus avoided the pedantry which 
spoils the chronicles of George Chastellain, and which 
makes the greater part of the fifteenth-century authors 
so painful to read. Finally, we must not forget that 
Commines was a shrewd politician ; carrying on the 
designs of Louis XL, he contributed to found the 
national unity of France, and would have made of 
Flanders a French province, if he had had his own way^ 



332 TALES — " LES CENT NOUVELLES NOUVELLES,'' 

Besides chroniclers, a certain number of minor prose 
writers flourished about the same epoch. The fashion 
of meeting for the purpose of telling short stories and 
questionable anecdotes had penetrated into France 
from the other side of the Alps, and Boccaccio found 
imitators at the court of the dukes of Burgundy. 
The " Decameron " suggested the " Cent nouvelles 
nouvelles," which have been generally ascribed to 
Antoine de la Salle, author of a pretty little tale 
entitled " Le Roman du Petit Jehan de Saintre et de 
la Dame des belles cousines." It seems more probable, 
however, that several collaborateiirs had a share in the 
work, and that Louis XL contributed no less than 
eleven stories to the whole collection. It was com- 
piled between 1456 and 1461, when Louis, the Dau- 
phin, was undergoing a voluntary exile at Dijon. 

We possess abundant evidence to show that lite- 
rature was seriously encouraged in France since the 
reign of Charles V. Catalogues have been handed 
down to us proving that libraries existed in a number 
of baronial residences and the collection of the Louvre 
numbered 11 74 works, a large amount for the four- 
teenth century. 

The origin of the French drama belongs to this 
part of our subject. We have already glanced at it in 
a previous chapter ; but it requires to be examined 
here somewhat in detail. Whether we study the 
theatre from its serious side, or consider it as a 
humorous picture of every-day life, whether we deal 
with tragedy or comedy, we find it persisting amidst 
revolutions and political disturbances, dynastic changes, 
civil and foreign warfare. In the squares and public 



THE DRAMA. 333 

places, in churches and chapels, in princely residences 
and baronial halls, everywhere the drama found its 
way, grave or comic as the case might be ; and it is 
not too much to say that the services of the Church 
formed a kind of dramatic exhibition, combining 
interest and edification. Without going back to the 
days of Hroswitha, the learned nun of Gandersheim 
who, during the tenth century composed six Latin 
comedies after the style of Terence ; without seeking 
the origins of the French stage in the works of Rute- 
beuf, the "Jeu d'Aucassin et de Nicolete," and the" Dit 
de Marcol et de Salomon," we shall name first Jean 
Bodel and Adam de la Halle as the real fathers of the 
French theatre. The former, in the "Jeu de Saint 
Nicolas," gave, as we have seen, a definite and regular 
form to the serious drama ; whilst the " Jeu de la 
Feuillie " by the latter is nothing else but an amusing 
comedy. Both poets belonged to the thirteenth 
century. 

The best critics have classified as follows the pro- 
ductions of mediaeval dramatic literature : 

a. The foremost rank belongs by right to the 7nj/s- 
teries or miracle plays performed by the Confreres de la 
Passion, a brotherhood or guild of pious artizans who 
devoted their leisure to the edification and entertain- 
ment of the faithful. This first attempt to organize a 
kind of theatre was strictly prohibited by the Provost 
of Paris in 1398, but the "brotherhood" appealed to 
the king, and obtained on the 4th of December, 1402, 
letters patent authorizing them to give representations 
in the metropolis. We cannot attempt to give a list 
of the mysteries which make up the repertoire of the 



334 ^^^ BASOCHE — '' ENFANTS SANS SOUCIS,'' 

Confreres de la Passion ; let us name the principal — the 
" Mystere de la Passion " by Arnoul Greban, divided 
into t\N^w\.y jour nee s and extending to 40,000 lines. 

b. The farces or pieces farcies, so called from the 
farcita epistola in macaronic Latin, may be mentioned 
next ; they were satirical pieces, pictures of society 
always most amusing and not unfrequently very objec- 
tionable. The actors who thus undertook to denounce 
the vices, foibles and ridicules of their neighbours were 
a set of lawyers' clerks, known by the name of Clercs 
de la Basoche, the Basoche (Basilica ? ^d^coj dlico^ ?), 
designating then the chief law court of Paris. The 
fraternity of the Basoche was sanctioned by Philip 
the Fair as a regular corporation, and they obtained in 
J 303 the right of electing from amongst their body a 
chief, who was styled roi de la Basoche, Their per- 
formances contrasted most strongly with those of the 
confreres de la Passion, and soon obtained an amount 
of popularity which proved fatal to the serious drama. 
The mysteries were both too edifying and too long, 
and five hundred lines were the utmost that a 
Parisian audience could put up with. A catalogue of 
mediaeval farces is as impossible as one of miracle 
plays ; the best of them is the immortal Fa ire de 
/*<?/^//>2, the authorship of which is ascribed by some to 
Pierre Blanchet, by others to Antpine de la Salle, 
whom we have already named. 

c. The Enfajits sans soucis remain to be described. 
Under the direction of a leader called le prince des sots, 
they started as a dramatic company during the reign 
of Charles VI. and performed comic pieces named 
sotieSy which were similar to the farces in style and 



PIERRE GRtNGORE. 335 

character. The most distinguished amongst the 
Prince des sots was Pierre Gringore or rather Gringon, 
who lived during the latter part of the fifteenth century 
and the beginning of the sixteenth. The following 
amusing piece of poetry is a kind of advertisement 
or appeal to the play-going public : 

"Sotz lunatiques, sotz estourdis, sots sages, 
Sotz de villes, de chasteaux, de villages, 
Sotz rassotes, sotz nyais, sotz subtilz, 
Sotz amoureux, sotz prives, sotz sauvages, 
Sotz vieux, nouveaux, et sotz de toutes ages, 
Sotz barbares, estrangers et gentilz, 
Sotz raisonnables, sotz pervers, sotz restifz, 
Vostre prince, sans nulles intervalles, 
Le mardi gras, jouera ses jeux aux Halles." 

After having thus given an idea of the mediaeval 
drama, we need hardly tell our readers that at an 
epoch and in a country where the satirical vein was 
always tempted to go beyond proper limits, both the 
" Clercs de la Basoche " and the " Enfants sans soucis," 
had no scruple to turn into ridicule lords, kings, pre- 
lates, nay, even the Pope himself. Thus Gringore's 
'• L'H-omme obstine " was directed against Julius II., 
the " Farce des frere Guillebert " attacked the monks. 
We have already alluded to the "Franc-archer de 
Bagnolet." The Basochians carried their freedom of 
speech so far that their performances were suppressed, 
and, in 1540, a royal edict was published threatening 
with the gallows any person or persons bold enough 
to venture upon any dramatic representations. 

The introduction into France of the art of printing 
is so important an event that we must dwell upon it 
here at some length. Charles VII. had commissioned 



336 ART OF PRINTING. 

(1458) one of the best engravers of the Pans mint, 
Nicolas Jenson, to go and study the mysteries of 
typography at Mentz. But whether Jenson dreaded 
the spite of Louis XL, who persecuted the late king's 
favourites, or from some other reason with which we 
are not acquainted, he went to Italy and settled at 
Venice. It was towards the end of 1469 that two 
distinguished members of the university of Paris, 
Guillaume Fichet and Jean Heynlin sent to Germany 
for three printers who had served as prentices at Mentz, 
namely, Ulrich Gering, Michael Triburger, and Martin 
Crantz. On their arrival in Paris they were provided 
with accommodation for themselves and their tools in 
the very buildings of the Sorbonne where they re- 
mained till the year 1473, when they moved to the 
Rue Saint Jacques, at the sign of the Golden Sun. 
They soon had many rivals in Paris, and the art of 
printing, encouraged by Louis XL, spread quickly 
from one end of France to the other. Presses were 
set up at Metz (1471), Lyons (1473), Angers (1477), 
Poitiers (1479), Caen (1480), Troyes (1483), Rennes 
(1484), Abbeville (i486), Besangon (1487), Toulouse 
(1488), Orleans (1490), Dijon and Angouleme (1491), 
Nantes (1493), Limoges (1495), Tours (1496), Avignon 
(1497), Perpignan (1500). It would be interesting to 
know what was the first printed book written in 
French, but this we cannot determine ; however, the 
earliest French printed book, bearing a certain date, 
is the " Recueil des histoires de Troye," composed by 
Raoul le Fure, chaplain to the Duke of Burgundy, 
Philip the Good ; we know that it was printed before 
1467, but from what presses it was issued is a matter 



ARCHITECTURE, 337 

of doubt. The first French book printed in Paris 
and dated is the " Grandes Chroniques de France," 
issued in 1476 (1477, New Style) by Paquier Bon- 
homme. 

The cultivation of fine arts, which had been so 
splendidly carried on during the age of Saint Louis, 
was not neglected in the fourteenth century, and a 
number of beautiful specimens of ecclesiastical, poli- 
tical, and civil architecture could be named testifying 
to the skill and genius of French builders. As far as 
churches are concerned, the fifteenth century cannot 
boast, indeed, of many new monuments ; the energy 
of the architects was rather reserved for the comple- 
tion and perfecting of structures already begun, and 
of which only the indispensable portions were available 
for the necessities of public worship. Thus the nave 
of the Cathedral of Troyes, the Church of Saint 
Ouen at Rouen, the chief portal of Bayeux Cathedral, 
the Church of Treguier, the Cathedral of Strasburg. 
It is curious to notice how certain local influences 
affected the erecting and ornamentation of churches, 
chapels, &c. Thus in Guienne, the English style is 
distinctly perceptible ; in Provence, one may note the 
influence of the Papal Court of Avignon. 

Under the general title of political architecture we 
include town-halls, prisons, and fortresses. We have 
seen already that the northern provinces were the 
chief seats of municipal life ; during the fifteenth 
century a perfect crop of guildhalls sprang, so to say, 
from the ground at Arras, Bethune, Douai, Saint 
Quentin, Saint Omer, Noyon, Compiegne; we are only 
alluding, of course, to those built on French soil. Dreux, 



33^ PAINTING. 

£vreux, Orleans, and Saumur can also be named in 
connection with that part of our review. If we now turn 
to the subject of prisons, it will suffice to mention the 
famous Bastile of Paris, which has played so im- 
portant a part in the history of France. Begun in 
1369, by Hugues Aubriot, provost of the city, it was 
completed in the course of twenty years, and its 
originator, it is said, was the first person confined 
within its walls. 

Monuments of civil architecture abound : at Rouen, 
the Hotel de Bourgtheroulde ; at Bourges, the Hotel 
of Jacques Coeur ; at Tours, the Hotel de Brigonnet ; 
in Paris, the Hotels de Sens and de Cluny. Most of 
those elegant structures show us symptoms of the 
approaching Renaissance, by the combination of the 
severe Gothic style with a more graceful and ornate 
system of design and embellishment. Painting in its 
various applications to glass, wood, plaster, and MSS., 
should not be forgotten ; Colart de Laon and Jean 
Fouquet are two from a long list which we could 
easily have extended. The latter was one of the 
most accomplished miniaturists whom France could 
boast of In the collection of the Paris National 
Library is to be found a MS. of Josephus translated 
into French. It was written in 1416 for the Duke de 
Berri who caused it to. be illustrated, at the beginning 
with three large miniatures. The volume, unfinished, 
came into the possession of Jacques d'Armagnac, 
Duke de Nemours, who was beheaded in 1477 by 
order of Louis XL This lord completed the decora- 
tions of the book by inserting eleven other paintings, 
each of which is a masterpiece ; from the Armagnac 



PLAYING CARDS. 339 

family, the MS. passed into that of the Dukes de 
Bourbon, and is now the property of the State. 

Playing cards may fairly be regarded as a branch 
of illumination, and as they are connected with the 
reign of Charles VI. we shall mention them here. In 
an account^or memorandum of payments made up in 
1392 by the treasurer, Charles Poupart, we find the 
painter, Jacquemin Gringonneur, alluded to as having 
received fifty-six sols parisis in payment for three 
packs of cards in gold and colours with various de- 
vices. A seventeenth-century critic, Father Menetrier, 
has hastily concluded from that passage to the in- 
vention of playing cards by Gringonneur ; but, in the 
first place, it may be observed that cards are mentioned 
in the thirteenth chapter of Antoine de la Salle's 
"Petit Jehan de Saintre," and, in the next, the descrip- 
tion given by Poupart of the three packs supplied to 
King Charles VI., clearly shows that playing cards 
were in use before the days of Gringonneur ; although 
they may have been, and probably were, inferior in 
make and in quality. 

Nor is it more accurate to say, with the Abbe Bullet, 
that if Gringonneur did not actually invent cards, they 
are nevertheless of French origin (i 376-1 379), and 
that from France they passed, in the first instance, into 
Spain, then successively into Italy, England, and the 
rest of Europe. The fact that fleurs-de-lys occur on 
the costumes of the court cards, that the name of 
Charlemagne has been given to the king of hearts, 
and that the four knaves are called after four of the 
most distinguished French mediaeval paladins proves 
nothing whatever in support of Bullet's hypothesis 



340 INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. 

because the Parisian artist who adapted the original 
images to the latitude of France and the court of 
Charles VI. could easily change the names of the 
figures and modify their costumes. 

Industry and commerce rose to great prosperity 
during the fifteenth century, and we have evidence to 
show that articles of luxury were abundant in the 
houses, not only of princes, but of well-to-do bourgeois- 
Trades-guilds and corporations protected with great 
severity the rights, privileges, and constitution of the nu- 
merous industries which supplied at that time the wants 
of the population, and if the institution of these guilds 
resulted in creating privileged classes, and in excluding 
the very poor from trades where they might otherwise 
have exercised their skill, yet it secured perfection 
of work, honest dealing, and the total absence of those 
degrading frauds which result from over-competition. 
Another most important result in the system of cor- 
porations was that by limiting the number of trades- 
men and mechanics, it furthered indirectly, but most 
effectually, the cause of agriculture, as it lessened the 
inducements which the rural populations might have 
had to flock to towns. 

In thus tracing the progress of intellectual and 
social life during the fifteenth century, we must notice 
that gradually a new spirit had come over European 
civilization, and that new influences were at work 
substituting themselves to the traditions of the Middle 
Ages. Till then Rome had been regarded as the 
centre of the moral world, and for the solution of the 
manifold problems which affect the life of man all eyes 
were turned towards the Vatican. Now, hov/ever, that 



THE RENAISSANCE. 34 1 

by the means of war, commercial intercourse, and diplo- 
matic arrangements, frequent and easy intercourse 
was established between France and lta\y, the /prestige 
which had for so many ages surrounded Roman 
Catholicism had begun to wear away. What right, 
some inquirers boldly said, has the Pope to put forth 
his pretensions as the vicar of God on earth ? Why 
should we feel bound to obey blindly the dictates of 
men who often lead the most scandalous lives, and 
whose conduct is actuated by the grossest ambition 
and the most unblushing rapacity ? What intellectual 
benefit can we derive from a teaching the outcome of 
which is the scholastic nonsense of an Ockham or a 
Buridan ? 

The questions we have thus put are, every one must 
acknowledge, difficult to be answered, and well calcu- 
lated to perplex the weak and the unlearned. Then 
the most casual observer could not help noticing that 
the Romish Church towards the close of the fifteenth 
century was like a house divided against itself If the 
Popes were right, the corporations and small societies, 
which aimed at high spiritual life and devoted them- 
selves to the works of practical piety, were wrong. 
Now, could this be admitted for a moment ? 

Whilst the whole of Europe was tossed about by 
uncertainty respecting the highest problems of our 
nature, the Renaissance movement dawned upon the 
world, and a fresh element was thus introduced into 
the apparently insoluble difficulty. Socrates, Aristotle, 
Plato, Epictetus, Seneca, Cicero began for the first time 
to be studied and appreciated ; now the question would 
naturally suggest itself — Were all these men, patterns 



342 THE REFORMATION, 

of virtue and of wisdom, condemned to everlasting 
destruction from the fact that they were born beyond 
the influence of Christianity ? Further, are not the 
principles which actuated them in their noble lives 
quite good enough for us, and need we go to other 
sources for direction and advice ? 

The field of discussion, we notice, had thus become 
considerably widened, and from challenging the 
authority of the Pope, men had arrived to call in 
question the authority of Christianity itself. It is on 
such a state of things as this that the epoch closed 
which we have undertaken to describe, so far as France 
is concerned. The Middle Ages had done their work, 
and it now remained for society to apply itself to the 
perplexing but noble task of borrowing from the past 
what was really worth retaining, and making of it a 
considerable element in the new order of things. 




GLOSSARY OF MEDIEVAL WORDS. 



Aissi and Aid are two Proven 9al 

forms of ici=h.exQ ; adv. 
Allodial from the Teutonic al, lod 

(hence the Low L. allodium ; Fr. 

alien), hereditary property, free 

from all dues. 
Altre, for autre (L. alter). 
Amatz, Provenfal for aimez (L. 

amatis), love. 
Araire, L. araritim from 

aratorius, a ploughed 

Mod. Fr. arpent. 
Ardoir, L. ardere, to burn. 
Alt, he burns, consumes, 

ardoir. 
Avetz, L. habetis, you have. 
Autrui, of other, or others. 

in Old French without a preposi- 
tion, 

B. 

Baterie (de cuisine), kitchen range, 

utensils. 
Bible, name given during the Middle 

Ages to all compositions of an 

ethical and didactic character. 
Bochu, Picard pronounciation of 

the adjective Bossu, hunchback. 
Btiotts, Proven 9al for Bosufs, oxen ; 

L. Boves. 

C. 
Capdel, capitaine, captain. Capdel 

is Proven9al. 



ager 
field. 



from 



Used 



Castoiement, chdtiment ; a\s,o castie- 
ment in O. F. [a book of] re- 
monstrances, reproofs. 

Cavaleisia, Provencal for tourna- 
ments. From the Low L. caballus, 
a horse. 

Cendreus, base, cowards, a serf who 
is employed in making cinders 
{cendres) out of burnt wood. 

Cervoisiers, those who sell cej'voise, 
a kind of beer [cervoise ; cervisia 
in Pliny). 

Chacier, chasse. To go in pursuit 
of. 

Changier, changer. 

Char, chair, flesh. 

Cit, celui. From the L. ecce, Hie. 

Clamotir, clameur. 

Cor, coeur. 

Con for qti'on, whom one. 

Cordoua?iiors, cordon ttiers, shoe- 
makers ; literally, dealers in goods 
made of Cordova leather. Eng. 
cordwainer. 

Coroniez, couronnis, crowned 
[heads]. 

Coy, qui, who ; decoy — ^^ qui, whose. 

Crdans, croyant, believer ; hence, 
mdcrdant, a miscreant. 

Cuiche, couche ; je [me] cuiche, I lie 
down. 

D. 

Damage, dommage. 



344 



GLOSSARY OF MEDIEVAL WORDS, 



DMuire (se), to enjoy one's self. 
Synonym, se divertir. 

Dimende, menee ; ddmetier, to lead 
[out of the right way]. 

Demour, demeure. Que je demour, 
that I may remain. 

Dere, precieuse. Eng. dear. 

Desputizon, dispute, controverse. 

Desiretichier, Irancher, couper, de- 
cap iter. 

Diex, Dieu. 

Doloir, souffrir, from the L. dolore. 

Dom, the Lord. L. Dominus. 



El, le. 

Emperaieur , empereur. 
Efifh, enfant. 
Eni7-emist, (s), undertook. 
Estuet (m'), me faut, I must. 
Exhauchie}', exalt. Mod. Fr. ex- 
hausser. 



Eais, faix, fardeau, burden. 
Eaz, fais. 

Fdronnerie, the place where iron- 
mongers have their stalls or shops. 
Foit, feu. 
Foux, fou. 
Premiers, fermiers. 



Gaaingner, Gagner. 

Gente, gentil. 

GonfiiJion, also Gonfalon^ flag, stan- 
dard. From the Old High Ger. 
Guntfano, from Gundja, fight, 
andy«;?c, banner. 

H. 

Hardement, hardiment. 

Hauz, haut. 

Hdoient, Haissaient. Thus Frois- 

sart : " Quand it remontroit un 

homme qu'il hdoUy 



Horn, Home, Homo, Homme. 
Honte [faite a] Dieu (la). 

I. J. K. 

/store, histoire. 
yor, jour. 
Ki, qui. 

L. 

Lais, laisse, I leave. 

Laist, laisse, leave off, desist. 

Lez, pres, from the L. latus, side. 
Eng. near. Thus agam : Plessis- 
lez-Tours, Plessis near Tours. 

Li, le, les, the. 

Loer, louer. 

M. 

Mais, mieux. L. magis. 

Mandic, mendiant. 

Menacier, menacer. 

Mengier, manger. 

Mes, mais. 

Mie, point. L. 9nica, crumb. " Ne 

le sui-s 7?iie " — I am not so at all. 
Miex, mieux. 

Monges, moine. L. monachus. 
Morveus, morveux. Eng. snotty. 

N. 

Nacaire. Eng. cymbals. 
Nayx, naif. L. nativus. 
Nice, difficile. 
Not (il), n'y eut. 

O. 

Orde, sale. Eng. dirty. 
Orguelh, orgueil. 
Ot, eut. 



Panches, panse. Eng. paunch. 

Payx, pays. 

Pris, prix. 

Prisier, priser. Eng. to esteem. 



GLOSSARY OF MEDIEVAL WORDS, 



345 



Pou, peu. 

Pms, pnf, depuis. 

Q. 

Quant, ce que. L. quantum. Eng, 

as much as. 
Querquier, chercher. 

R. 

Regratiers. Eng. retail dealers. 
Riens, chose, L. Rem. 



San, sens. Eng. sense. 
Sayx, sain? L. Sanus. 
S'e?i, sien. S'en porteront^ThcvQ- 

fore they will carry of it. 
Sente, sentier. Eng. path. 
Sermoneis, prechez. 



Set, sait. 

Si, c'est pourquoi, Eng. therefore. 

Siatz (qui vous), soyez. 

Solacier, donner du plaisir. Eng. 

to solace. 
Solas, plaisir. Eng. solace. 
Soume, somme. 
Suelh, j 'avals coutume. 



Tolu, enleve. L. tollere. 
Tot, tout. 
Trais, trahi. 
Tristor, tristesse. 

V. 

Voir, vrai. L. verum. 
Volt, veut. L. vult. 




INDEX. 



A. 



Abelard, philosopher, 67 : con- 
demned by councils, 67 ; death, 
68 

Acre, siege of, 70, 71 

Agnes de Meranie. married to 
^Philip Augustus, S6 ; her death, 

x\lbigenses, their origin, 83 ; cru- 
sade against them, 82-84 ; at- 
tacked by Louis VIII., 88 

Alencon. Duke of, 298 

Anjou, Counts of, their power, I ; 
Foulques Nerra, 21 ; Geot^rey 
Plantagenet 55 : Henry Plan- 
tagenet, 61. Charles d\ brother 
of Louis IX., 120; his ambi- 
tion, 134; stopped by Gre- 
gory X., 134 ; decline of his 
power and death, 136. Louis, 
Duke d' Anjou, 222 ; his struggle 
for power, 223 ; shares the 
Regency, 223-228 ; death, 229. 
King Rene, 282. Power of 
Count of Anjou destroyed by 
Louis XL, 299 

Anne de Beaujeu, regent for 
Charles YIII., 304 : her policy, 
305 ; meeting of the States, 305 ; 
struggles with Duke d'Orleans, 
306-308 ; end of regency and 
death, 310 

Architecture, its revival, 127 ; 
Gothic, 127-130: secular, 130; 
lil"teenth centut)^, 337, 338 



Amiagnac, Count d', chosen 
leader against Duke of Bur- 
gundy, 237 : created Constable 
of France, 244 ; killed in Paris, 
244 : John v., Count of, 298 
Armorial bearings, 35, 36 
Armorican cities, 2 
Arras, Treaty of, 269, 270 
Arteveldt. Von ; rules in Flanders, 

172 ; Philip von, 22S 
Art in fourteenth century, 337 
Art under Louis IX., 127-132; 

industrial, 132 
Assises dc Jc'rusalc-m, 31, 32 
A^-ignon, Papal residence at, 149 
Azincourt, battle of, 240-243 



B. 

Basin, Bishop of Lisieux, his- 
torian, 329 

Basoche {Clercs de la) actors, 334 

Bayard, Chevalier, 317 

Beauvais, siege of, 295 

Becket, Thomas a, 62 

Bedford, Duke of, at funeral of 
Charles VI., 249 : regent of 
France, 254 ; marches to Or- 
leans, 257 ; decline of power, 
266, 267 ; death, 270 

Benedict XIII., Pope, 251, 252 

Beneventum, battle of, 120 

Bernard, Saint, 5S-60 ; opposes 
Abelard, 67 

Berry, Duke de, brother of Louis 



348 



INDEX, 



XI., 292, 293; opposes his 
brother, 294 ; poisoned, 294 

IJertrand de Born, 42 

Blanche of Castile, wife of Louis 
VIII., 90; her influence with 
the barons, 91 ; regent during 
Louis' absence, 97 ; her death, 

Boniface VIII., quarrel with Philip 
IV., 144-148 

Bonnet, Ilonore, Prior of Salons, 
252 

Bouvines, battle of, 73-70 

Brittany, Duchy of, dispute as to 
the succession, 173; war in, 213; 
John de Montfort acknowledged 
Duke, 213; he conspires against 
Clisson, 232. John VI., Duke 
of, joins Charles VIL, 256. 
Duke of, joins Duke d'Orleans 
against Anne de Beaujeu, 307 ; 
submits, 308. Anne of, 308 ; 
married to Charles VIII., 309 ; 
married to Louis XII., 315 

Burgundy, Duke of. Philip the 
Good, 247-288. Charles the 
Bold, 288; takes Louis XI. 
prisoner, 291 ; marches into 
Normandy, 295 ; death, 296. 
Mary of, marries Maximilian of 
Austria, 300 

C. 

Calais, siege of, 182-184 

Cards, Playing, 339 

Charles IV. {k Bet), 161 ; his 

exactions, 161, 162 ; his death, 

163 
Charles of Blois, 173; made 

prisoner by the English, 184 ; 

disputes Brittany, and is killed, 

213 
Charles of Navarre {le Mauvais) 

claims throne of France, 189 ; 

imprisoned by King John, 191 ; 

joins with Etienne Marcel, 202 ; 

rebels against Charles V., 211 
Charles (the Dauphin), son of 

John, 198 ; opposed by Etienne 

Marcel, 198-200 ; leaves Paris, 



201 ; succeeds his father ns 
Charles V., 210 ; settles disputes 
in Brittany, 213 ; renews war 
with England, 215-218 ; death, 
218 ; his government, 218-220 ; 
love of literature, 221 

Charles VI. succeeds his father, 
222 ; crowned, 224 ; troubles 
in France, 224; riots about 
taxes, 226 ; marches into Flan- 
ders, 228 ; returns to Paris and 
imposes taxes, 229 ; assumes 
sole government, 230 ; marches 
into Brittany, 232 ; seized with 
madness, 233 ; regency during 
his illness, 234 ; condition of the 
country, 237 ; civil war, 23 ) ; 
war with English, 240; signs 
treaty of Troyes, 247 ; death, 
249 

Charles VIT. proclaimed king, 
250; his territory, 254; his 
marriage, 2^5 ; increase of his 
power, 256 ; assisted by Joan 
of Arc, 263-266 ; coronation, 
266 ; treaty of Arras, 270 ; 
English leave Paris, 271 ; his 
chief advisers, 271 ; entry into 
Paris, 272; defeats the English, 
272 ; his reforms, 273 ; or- 
ganizes the army, 274; finan- 
cial reforms, 275 ; death, 278, 
279 

Charles VIII. succeeds his father, 
304 ; his portrait. 309 ; marries 
Anne of Brittany, 309 ; plans 
to invade Italy, 310 ; makes 
treaties with England, Germany, 
and Spain, 311 ; marches into 
Italy, Battle of Fornovo, 312 ; 
returns to France, 314; death, 

314 . 
Chastellain, George, historian, 328 
Chivalry, 33 and foil. ; training of 
a knight, 33 ; his admission, 
34 ; his duties, 35 ; chronicled 
by Froissart, 169 
Church, the. in Middle Ages, 14, 
15 ; establishments of the truce 
of God, 21 ; favours the com- 
munal movement, 52 ; theo- 



INDEX, 



349 



logical disputes, 66 ; architec- 
ture, 127-130; music, 131; 
riches of, under Philip lY. , 
144 ; schisms and Council of 
Constance, 250 ; need of re- 
form, 251-253 ; power reduced 
by Louis XL, 287 
Church in fi teenth century, 340 
Clemangis, Nicolas de, 253 
Clisson, Olivier de, 210; at coro- 
nation of Charles VI., 224 ; in 
Flanders, 228 ; chosen as the 
king's adviser, 230 ; attacked 
by order of the Duke of Brit- 
tany, 232 ; retires from court, 

234 

Coinage, 1 14 ; altered by Philip 
the Fair, 140 ; debased by 
Charles IV., 161 ; altered by 
John, 188 

Commines, Philip de, historian, 
330 

Commerce, mediaeval, 116; en- 
couraged by Louis XL, 303 ; in 
fifteenth century, 340 

Communal movement, 48; charters, 
49-52 ; sanctioned by bishops, 
52 ; encouraged by the king, 
54; increases under Louis VI L, 
63 ; Communes support Philip 
Augustus, y^^ 75 5 Communes 
transformed into royal cities, 
118 

Constantinople, siege of, 81 ; 
Frankish Empire established, 
82, and collapses, 82 ; taken by 
Turks, 277 

Councils, Etampes, 57 ; Reims, 
57 ; Soissons, 67 ; Sens, 67 ; 
Lyons, 95 ; Constance, 250 

Coiir du roi, 109, no 

Coeur (Jacques), Chancellor of 
Charles VIL, 275 ; his career, 
278, 279 

Cressy, battle of, 1 79-1 81 

Crusade against Albigenses, 82-84 

Crusade, First, preached by Peter 
the Hermit, 25, 26 ; leaders of, 
29 ; attack on Jerusalem, 30 ; 
Godefroi de Bouillon made King 
of Jerusalem, 31 ; influence on 



literature, 36-38 ; troubadours, 
40-43 ; historians, 45 

Crusade, Second, 58 ; its failure, 59 

Crusade, Third, 70, 71 

Crusade, Fourth, preached by 
Foulques, 77 ; siege of Con- 
stantinople, 81 ; crusade to Holy 
Land abandoned, 82 

Crusade, tifth, preached by Inno- 
cent IV., 95; the start, 97-99 ; 
Damietta taken, &c., 100 ; 
plague, loi ; crusade aban- 
doned, 105 

Crusade of St. Louis, 119 

Crusade against Sultan Bajazet, 
234 



D 



Dauphin, origin of title, 187 ; 
Charles, son of John, 198-210; 
Charles, son of Charles VI., 
245; Louis, son of Charles VII., 
273 ; opposes his father, 278 ; 
his accession, 280 

Deschamps, Eustache, his poems, 
238, 251 

Drama, 332-335 

Duguesclin, Bertrand, 210 ; made 
prisoner at Auray, 213 ; ran- 
somed and sent to Spain, 215 ; 
made Constable of France, 217 ; 
his exploits, 218 

E 

Edv^^ard III. (of England) renders 
homage, 163 ; visits Philip VI., 
167 ; enters Flanders, 172 ; 
comes to Brittany, 176 ; ad- 
vances towards Paris, 178 ; in- 
vades France again, 205 

England, power of in France, 55, 
56, 61 ; power lost under John, 
72 ; peace between France and, 
142 ; Hundred Years' War, 
171, 272 

English defeated at Taillebourg, 

Enguerrand de Marigny, Prime 
Minister of France, 157 



350 



INDEX. 



Feudal system, 3 and following ; 
homage, 6 ; castles, 9 ; vassals, 
10 ; serfs, 13, 14 ; evil influ- 
ence of, 21-48 ; established in 
the East, 31 ; rise of the people 
against it, 48 ; gradual decay 
before the power of the king, 
"jj ; judicial power of barons, 
109 ; further decay under Philip 
the Bold, 138 ; finally destroyed, 
157 ; last struggles of feudal 
lords, 273, 278, 298 ; conquered 
by Louis XL, 298-300 

Flagellants, 185 

Flanders invaded by Philip Au- 
gustus, JT) ; defeat of Count of, 
77 ; invaded by Philip the Fair, 
141 ; annexed to France, 142 ; 
under a French governor, 142 ; 
rebellion, 143 ; defeat of the 
French, 144 ; rebellion in, 164; 
battle at Cassel, 165, 166 ; 
Flemings join with England 
against Philip VI., 172; rising 
of cities against counts, 227 ; 
battle of Roosebeke, 228 

France, districts of, in 987, I, 2 ; 
political condition, 4, 5 ; lan- 
guages of, 38 ; union of, under 
Philip Augustus, 77, 86 ; further 
enlargements, 91 ; royal terri- 
tory increased, 187 

Froissart, 167 ; his account of him- 
self, 168 ; Chronicles, 168 and 
following ; as a poet, 326 



Gabelle established, 186 ; re- 
moved, 225 
Gaston de Foix at Ravenna, 320 
Gaudri, bishop of Laon, 54 
Geoffrey de Villehardouin, his- 
torian of Fourth Crusade, 80 
Georges, C irdinal d'Amboise, 324, 

325 
Gerson, Jean Charlier de, 249 ; at 
Constance, 251 



Gloucester, Duke of, In France, 

256 
Gotteschalck, monk, 66 
Gringore (Pierre), actor, 335 
Gtiet Royal, 114 
Guilds, 115; in fifteenth century, 

340 

H. 

Henry I. succeeds his father, 20 ; 

his marriage, 20 ; defeated by 

William of Normandy, 21 
Henry V. (of England) lands at 

Harfleur, 240 ; conquests in 

Normandy, 245 ; enters Paris, 

247 ; death, 249 
Henry VI. (of England) King of 

France, 254 ; crowned, 268 
Herrings, battle of the, 260 
Hugues Capet, his accession, i ; 

origin, 15 ; death, 17 
Hundred Years' War, 17 1 ; in 

Flanders, 172 ; in Brittany, 173- 

176 : truce, 176 ; war renewed, 

177 ; second truce, 185 : war 
renewed by Edward III., 189; 
truce after Poitiers, 197 ; Ed- 
ward enters France, 205 ; peace 
signed at Bretigny, 208 ; war 
renewed by Charles V., 215 ; 
truce, 218; battle of Azincourt, 
240-243 ; siege of Orleans, 257 ; 
English defeated, 272 ; and 
finally retreat, 272 ; end of the 
Hundred Years' War, 272 



Ingelburge, wife of Philip Augus- 
tus, 86 

Innocent III., Pope, interferes be- 
tween Philip Augustus and John 
of England, 72 ; promotes the 
Fourth Crusade, 78 ; his efforts 
against heresy, 83 ; lays France 
under an interdict, 86 

Innocent IV., Pope, takes refuge 
in France, 95 

Inquisition established at Tou- 
louse, 91 



INDEX. 



351 



Isabelle of Bavaria married to 
Charles VI., 235; returns to 
Paris, 245 

J- 

Jacquerie, origin of, 202 

Jeanne de Montfort, 174 ; at siege 
of Hennebon, 175 

Jeanne Fouquet (Hachette), at 
Beauvais, 295 

Jews, persecution of, 20 ; persecu- 
tion by Philip Augustus, yo ; 
treatment of, by Louis IX., iii; 
banished by Philip the Fair, 140 ; 
suspected of poisoning wells, 
159, 160 ; plundered by Charles 
IV., 161 ; accused of poisoning, 
&c., 185 

Joinville, Sire de, his memoirs, 
93' 94, 97. 100, 105, III, 113, 
119 

Joan of Arc, her birth, 260 ; her 
visions, 262 ; interview with 
Charles VII., 263 ; goes to 
Orleans, 264 ; raises the siege, 
266 ; further victories, 266 ; 
taken prisoner, 267 ; her death, 
268 

John {yean le Bon), 188 ; summons 
the States-General, 190 ; the 
nation taxed, 190 ; John at 
Poitiers, 192, 196 ; enters Lon- 
don, 197 ; returns to France, 
208 ; cedes many provinces to 
England, 208 ; returns to Eng- 
land and dies, 209 

John the Fearless, Duke of Bur- 
gundy, 235 ; murders Duke 
d'Orleans, 236 ; conduct to the 
Parisians, 237 ; civil war, 239 ; 
enters Paris, 244 ; treacherously 
murdered, 246 

K. 
Kiersey, Edict of, 4 

L. 
La Hire, 257 ; at Orleans, 258 



Landit, foire du, 116 

Law, revival of study of, no; 
administered by Louis IX., 1 1 1 ; 
Etablissements de Saint Louis, 
114; under Philip IV., 147; 
Salic, 159 ; under Philip V,, 
158 ; under Louis XL, 302 

Literature, earliest specimens, 38 ; 
of chivalry, 39, 40 ; of Crusades, 
40-45 ; first prose writer, 80 ; 
in Langued'oc, ^t, ; progress of, 
in thirteenth century, 120-126 ; 
sermons, 126 ; at the time of 
Charles V., 221 ; of fifteenth 
century, 326-332 ; dramatic 
literature, 332 

Louis VI., 47 ; struggles with the 
nobles, 54 ; makes war with 
England, 55 ; invades Flanders, 
56 ; extension of his power in 
France, 56 ; supports Pope Inno- 
cent II., 57 ; death, 57 

Louis VII., coronation of, 57 ; 
accession, 57- ; quarrel with 
Count of Champagne, 58 ; orga- 
nizes a crusade, 58 ; repudiates 
his wife, 61 ; war with Henry 
II. of England, 61, 62 

Louis VIII., 88 

Louis IX. {Saint Louis) succeeds 
Louis VIII., 90 ; majority pro- 
claimed, 91 ; his character, 92- 
94 ; starts for the Holy Land, 
97 ; victory at Mansurah, 100, 
loi ; his wife, 102 ; Louis taken 
prisoner, 104 ; reaches the Holy 
Land, 105 ; returns to France, 
106 ; his reforms, 109 ; adminis- 
tration of justice, III, 113; other 
improvements, 114-118; starts 
on another Crusade, 119; death, 
119; canonization, 145 

Louis X. {le Hittin), his wife, 155 ; 
succeeds his father, 156 

Louis XL, 281 ; struggles with 
the nobles, 281-284 ; his cha- 
racter; 285 ; coronation, 286 ; 
general discontent, 287 ; war 
with Count of Charolais, 288 ; 
treaties with the nobles, 288 ; 
invades Normandy, 288 ; strug- 



352 



INDEX. 



gles with Charles the Bold, 
288-291, 293-296 ; establishes 
his power over the nobles, 
298-300 ; invades Hainault, 
300 ; illness and death, 301 ; 
review of his reign, 301-303 
Louis XIL, accession, 314; 
divorces his wife and marries 
Anne of Brittany, 315 ; lays 
claim to Naples, 315 ; con- 
quers Milan, 316 ; marches 
towards Naples, 316 ; war 
with King of Spain, 317 ; 
battle with the Venetians, 319 ; 
attacked by the " Holy League," 
319 ; forced to negotiate, 
319-322 ; marries Mary of 
England, 322 ; death, 322 ; 
his home administration, 323 ; 
called *' Father of the People," 
324 ; various improvements, 
325 



M. 



Mansurah, battle of, 100 

Marcel (Etienne) sent as deputy 
to King John, 190; opposes 
the Dauphin Charles, 199-201 ; 
plots with Charles of Navarre, 
203 ; slain by John Maillart, 
204 

Marguerite, wife of Louis IX., 
accompanies him on the Cru- 
sade, 102 

Marguerite de Bourgogne, 155 

Marie de France, 123 

Mersen, Edict of, 3 

Monstrelet (Enguerrand de) his- 
torian, 328 

Montargis, siege of, 257 

Montlhery, battle of, 288 

Muret, battle of, 35 

N. 

Names, 36 

Nominalism, 67 

Normandy, insurrection in, 18 ; 
Robert, Duke of, 21 ; William, 
Duke of, 21-23 ; invaded by 



Philip Augustus, 72 ; Normandy 
exchequer, 154; John of, 176 



O. 



Orleans, siege of, 257-266 ; Duke 
d', rivalry between him and 
Anne de Beaujeu, 305-307 ; 
made prisoner, 30S ; succeeds 
Charles VIII., 314 

Otto IV,, Emperor of Germany, 
72 ; at battle of Bouvines, 75 



Painting and painters, fifteenth 
century 

Paris Guild of Merchants, 63 ; 
cathedral of Notre Dame 
founded, 63 ; University of, 
64 ; Estienne Boisleve, Provost 
of, 115; endowments of St. 
Louis, 118; Parliament of, 
153, 154; its treatment of 
offenders, 162; fortified, 198; 
revolution against the Dauphin 
Charles, 199-201 ; improve- 
ments in, by Charles V., 220; 
Rising of people against 
Charles VI., 225-228; Mas- 
sacres in, under Duke of Bur- 
gundy, 244 

Pastoureaux, revolt of, 106 ; pro- 
gress and defeat, 107, 108; 
another rising of, 160 

Peronne, treaty of, 291 ; rupture 
of treaty, 293 

Philip I. succeeds his father, 
23 ; attacked by William of 
Normandy, 23 ; character and 
death, 46 

Philip Augustus, 69 ; his con- 
quests, 69 ; relations towards 
Richard I. of England, 71 ; 
plots with John, 71 ; quarrels 
with John, 72 ; John forms a 
league against him, 72 ; Philip 
marches into Flanders, 73 ; 
battle of Bouvines, 73-76 ; re- 
turns to Paris, JJ ; his three 
wives, 86; various improve- 



INDEX. 



353 



ments introduced by him, 87, 
88 ; death, 88 

Philip III. [le Hardi), increase of 
his power, 133 ; war with 
Spain, 136 ; death, 136 ; story 
ot Phih'p and Pierre de la 
Brosse, 137, 138 

Philip IV., accession, 139; great 
changes, 139 ; establishes 
troops and ships, 140 ; his 
marriage, 141 ; attacks Edward 
I. in Guienne and at Dover, 
141 ; his daughter married to 
the son of King of England, 
142 ; war in Flanders, 143, 
144; quarrel with the Pope, 
145-148; chooses another Pope, 
Clement V. ; his reforms, 153, 
154; deathj 156 

Philip V. {le Long), proclaimed 
king, 157; events of his reign, 
159-160 ; death, 161 

Philip de Valois (Philip VI.) 
appointed regent, 163 ; made 
king, 164 ; enters Flanders, 
164 ; end of the rebellion, 166 ; 
takes part in war in Brittany, 
176; treachery against Breton 
lords, 177 ; deleated at Cressy, 
181 ; death, 186 ; oppressive 
acts, 187 ; increase of terri- 
tory, 187 

Philip the Good, Duke of Bar- 
gundy, 247 ; ally of Duke of 
Bedford, 256 ; feelings to- 
wards the English, 269 ; at 
Arras, 269 ; breaks with the 
English, 270 ; his estates, 284 ; 
sells cities to Louis XL, 287 ; 
death, 288 

Poetry, subjects for, 39 ; "Chan- 
sons de geste," 40 ; " Chanson 
d'Antioche," 45; " Gestes," 
120 ; Romances of thirteenth 
century, 121; Mysteries, 124; 
patriotic poets, 238, 239 ; 
poetry of fifteenth century, 
326, 327 

Poitiers, battle of, 191-196 

Postal service established in 
France, 302 



Praguerie, rebellion, 273 
Printing, introduction of, 335, 336 



Q. 

Quaranfaine-le-)'oi, La, 88, 109 
Quinze-vingts, Hospital of, 118 



R. 

Ravenna, battle of, 320 
Raymond V., Count of Toulouse, 
complains against Albigenses, 

83 
Raymond VI., 84 
Renaissance, dawn of, 341 
Rennes, siege of, 174, 175 
Richard the Pilgrim, 45 
Richard, Coeur de Lion, joins 

Third Crusade, 70 ; his captivity, 

71; defeats the French, 72; 

death, 72 
Richemont, Arthur de, made 

Constable, 256 ; at Arras, 269 ; 

enters Paris, 270 
Robert (good king), 17 ; his 

marriage with Constance, 17 ; 

refuses Italy and Lorraine, 18 ; 

his death, 20 
Robert d'Artois, 171, 172 
Romance, 43 ; " Roman de la 

Rose," 44, 117-122; romances 

of thirteenth century ; " Roman 

de Renart," 123 ; " Roman de 

Fauvel," 150 
Roscelin, Canon of Compiegne, 

67 



Saint Omer, battle of, 173 

Schools, founded by Charlemagne, 
64 ; school of Saint Victor, 65 

Sicilian Vespers, 135 

Simon de Mont fort, attacks the 
Albigenses, 85 ; receives do- 
mains in Languedoc, 85 

Society, tenlh century, 3 

Sorbonne (the), 118 



354 



Spurs, battle of, 320-322 
Star, Order o\, created, 209 
Sugar, Abbot of Saint Denis, 61 



Templars, Knights, 149 ; suppres- 
sion planned by Philip the 
Fair, 150 ; condemned by the 
States-General, 151 ; destruc- 
tion and final suppression, 152 ; 
murder of the Grand Master, 
156 

Thibaut, Count of Champagne, 
90 ; becomes King of Navarre, 
91 ; his poetry, 124 



INDEX. 

Troyes, treaty of, 247 



U. 

University of Paris, 64; noted 
members, 65 ; interferes on 
behalf of Joan of Arc, 267 

V. 

Villon, Frangois, his poetry, 327 

W. 

Wace, Robert, 43, 44 



The Story of the Nations. 



Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure ift 
announcing that they have in course of pubHcation a 
series of historical studies, intended to present in a 
graphic manner the stories of the different nations that 
have attained prominence in history. 

In the story form the current of each national life will 
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periods and episodes will be presented for the reader in 
their philosophical relation to each other as well as to 
universal history. 

It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes 
to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring 
them before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and 
struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused 
themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with 
which the history of all lands begins, will not be over- 
looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from 
the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted 
historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. 

The subjects of the different volumes will be planned 
to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive 
epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will 
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in 
the great STORY OF THE NATIONS ; but it will, of course, 
not always prove practicable to issue the several volumes 
in their chronological order. 

The " Stories " are printed in good readable type, and 
in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated 
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not always prove practicable to issue the several volumes 
in their chronological order. 

The *' Stories " are printed in good readable type, and 
in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated 
and furnished with maps and indexes. They are sold 
separately at a price of $1.50 each. 

The following is a partial list of the subjects thus far 
determined upon : 

THE STORY OF *ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. George Rawlinson. 

" *CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

" *GREECE. Prof. James A. Harrison, 

Washington and Lee University. 

" *ROME. Arthur Oilman. 

" *THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer, 

Washington University of St. Louis. 

" *CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church, 

University College, London. - 

" BYZANTIUM. 

" *THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 

" *THE NORMANS. Sarah O. Jewett. 

" *PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. 

'• *SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. 

" *GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. 
" THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 

HOLLAND. Prof. C. E. Thorold Rogers. 

" *NORWAY. HjALMAR H. Boyesen. 

" *THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. 

" *HUNGARY. Prof. A. VAmbery. 
" THE ITALIAN KINGDOM. W. L. Alden. 

" *MEDI^VAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustave Masson. 

" ^ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. 

" *THE HANSE TOWNS. Helen Zimmern. 

" *ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

" *THE SARACENS. Arthur Oilman. 

" *TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. 

" PORTUGAL. H. Morse Stephens. 
" MEXICO. Susan Hale. 

" ^IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 

" PHCENICIA. 

" SWITZERLAND. 

" RUSSIA. 

" WALES. 

" SCOTLAND. 

" *MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 
^^ Z. A. Ragozin. 

.^^ Cf 0*fQr^^ volumes starred are now ready, September, i 

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